In Search of Zeal, Volume I
by Mystic Guru
Summary: After the tragic loss of a legendary kingdom, a woman with a gift awakens into a strange new world. And so begins the story of Zeal, a tale of loss and tragedy but also one of love and hope. A tale which spans the corridors of time and space...a tale we


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In Search of Zeal, Volume I: The Spook and The Warrior.

The Saga of the lost kingdom of Zeal as told by those who survived the fall.

By Mystic Guru, Keeper of the Ancient Tales.

With thanks to Spooky, JayTee, Ogre, and Magus667. Thanks, you guys. This story would never have happened without you. And to LadyOfTheLake (Hillary), whose constant encouragement has taken me through some rough times. Thanks, sweetie!!! And a special thanks to all the members and officers of the Guru Club.........you guys rock!!!!!

Copyright 2001

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Prologue

The palace began to shake violently, something which the deluded occupants of Zeal were not prepared for. As far as the eye could see, one Enlightened One after the other began to panic, mumbling incantations and activating devices that they thought would save them. The mothers ran with their children to the sky bridges, hoping that they would escape from what they knew was inevitable doom. In Kajar, the Queen's brightest scientific advisors worked desperately to bring the experimental scattering fields developed by Belthasar online, praying that they would hold up against the barrage of energy blasts that the damnable Lavos was hurling at them. But it was all too little, too late. The citizens of Zeal, who for so long had thought of themselves as the mightiest beings in the universe, could do nothing but watch as their mighty empire was reduced to a painful memory.

But there were a select few who would not give up so easily: The Queen's Order of Celestial Wizards. These individuals had been chosen by the Queen herself in the unlikely event that Lavos would rage out of their control. Their powers were uncanny, and their foresight was never faulty. And as another violent tremor moved the earth under their feet, they could not help but anguish at the fact that the Queen had failed to heed their warnings about dealing with the creature. King Zeal had believed them and had pleaded until the end to change the mind of his wife. When she did nothing, he took matters into his own hands, descending to the containment chamber in the yet unfinished Ocean Palace to deal a mortal blow to this Lavos. He was never heard from again, and the Queen blamed the Order for filling his head with doomsday nonsense, banishing them to one of the floating islands of Zeal and sealing them within its barren terrain. The Order, however, had not left alone. And because of this, there just might be a chance to stop Lavos before he could end anymore lives. Seated at a long, ornate table in what appeared to be a makeshift cave enclave, the Celestial Wizards meditated on texts and scrolls that might guide them in their actions. But the time for analysis was over, and they knew the time had come for action. With an unspoken cue, Vladen, head of the Order, spoke first.

"Fellow wizards. The time is upon us. If we do not act, Zeal will perish. Our Queen is no longer in possession of her faculties, so we cannot trust her judgment. It is because of her that we have been imprisoned here and that our kingdom is being destroyed at the hinges. But we all know the real threat.........Lavos. That is why we are here. Our time to act will come as soon as the seal is removed. We will only have a few seconds, but that will be enough."

"And what do you suggest we do, Vladen?" asked the wizard to his immediate right.

"We cannot destroy a creature of that size. Our incantations are powerless against it, and Schala will not be able to help us."

"And what of the boy?" Vladen asked, seemingly unscathed by the onslaught of bad news.

"Janus will not help us," answered Protus, wizard of the element Chaos.

"He is too much of a brat for that. And even if he was willing, what good could he be to us? He has no gift whatsoever for the mystical arts.....at least, not at the level of his sister. If you ask me...."

"You have it all wrong, Protus."

The wizards turned to see who had broken the silence of respect. Naturally, it was Lovia, the youngest and most inexperienced member of the Order, who had agreed to take her mother's place amongst them after she had been diagnosed with having the Reaper's Flaw, a disease that had no mercy and seemed to target those with special gifts. Now she had the seeming audacity to confront an elder member and tell him that he was mistaken, something that had never happened and was considered unpardonable.

"Oh? And tell us, Lovia, why we should heed your analysis?"

"Because Janus has the gift....just like us. We all remember the tests given to him as a child. They all showed that Janus has unfathomable abilities, even greater than those of his father. The only reason he wont help us is because he doesn't like listening to fools like you."

Everyone at the table stared at her in disbelief. The nerve of the girl to go and say such derogatory and slanderous things! This was unacceptable, and Vladen knew what he had to do.

"Lovia, you are out of line!! If you do not ask for penance, I am afraid I will have no choice but to invoke....."

"That will not be necessary, Vladen."

The Wizards turned to see who had spoken, and they immediately went silent. Standing next to Vladen in the shadows was Zendor, the Guru of Power. He had come to the island when the Queen had banished them because he knew this day would come. He had foreseen the disappearance of his fellow Gurus and had tried to persuade them to come to the island with him, but they all refused. None of them believed that the Queen would be foolish enough to unleash a power they had no way of controlling. Obviously, they had been mistaken, and now the fate of Zeal rested squarely on his shoulders.

"The time for all of this debate has long passed. We all know what we have to do. When the seal falls, we will focus all of our energy into the Ocean Palace and create a temporal vortex large enough to swallow Lavos up whole and send it somewhere else. As mentioned earlier, we will only have a window of about a few seconds, but that should be more than enough if we focus on the same goal. Well....is everyone prepared?"

"But what if we fail?" asked Lovia in a chilling tone.

"Then, my dear, may the earth forgive us."

Suddenly, a series of tremors struck Zeal all at once as more of Lavos's energy beams pummeled the already dying landscape. It was time.

"Hurry!!! We must get to the Star Eye in time or we will miss our chance!!"

The Wizards nodded and focused their thoughts on the Star Eye, all the while reciting the ancient language of magic: _Ignus meo, ladnum theo. Volgum neum, Ufrum freis._ And then they were gone, leaving the enclave as desolate and uninteresting as when they had first built it, all those years ago.......

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Being outside enabled the Order to see just how much Lavos had done. The gardens and the statues, the sky bridges and the mountain transports, all reduced to ashes by the fury of Lavos. But they could rebuild it all......the bridges and the gardens and all the rest could be easily replaced. However, if Lavos destroyed Zeal, then all would be lost. They could not allow that to happen.

Lovia looked through the transparent seal at the fiery sky up above. It had been blue once, filled with flying birds and creatures of all kinds. Now, no matter where you looked, the only thing you could see was fire and death. How, she asked herself, could no one have been able to stop this from happening? Why hadn't the Queen listened to them....or to anyone else? Her thoughts had begun to wander when Vladen called to her.

"Lovia? Come. We must create the circle around the base of the Star Eye before the seal is opened."

Lovia nodded and began to head over to the ever increasing circle of Wizards when she was stopped by Zendor.

"What are you doing? Can't you see that the time is upon us? We must prepare or our kingdom will perish!"

"The kingdom will perish anyways, Lovia. No matter what we do, Zeal will fall. I have seen it."

Lovia was shocked into silence. The Guru of Power's predictions were never wrong, but she just could not believe it would end like this. She refused to accept it, no matter how true it might be.

"I know you do not wish it to be so, but it is. Even now, Lavos has erected a singular chasm around the Ocean Palace. Any attempt to send a temporal vortex through the palace and into the chamber will result in failure. I am sorry."

"But......why didn't you tell the Order when we were gathered at the enclave? Why keep this knowledge to yourself?"

"Because Vladen and the others deserve to have their moment of happiness and victory before they go to the grave. All of them gave up their wives and children to be a part of this Order....they gave everything they had to the cause, even their souls. Now, we are all old men long past the peak of our abilities. Just like my Guru colleagues, they have done everything they could for Zeal. If it takes a bit of ignorance to give them a fitting death, then so be it."

Lovia, unable to cope with the overwhelming nature of what she was hearing, lowered her expressionless facade and let a few tears roll down her smooth, peach colored cheeks. This was also a violation of the laws set by the Order, but she no longer cared. _They are all going to die.....all of them. All for nothing._

And then she realized it. She turned sharply and faced Zendor, her brown eyes ablaze with newfound anger.

"Why do you keep saying 'they?' We are also going to die, aren't we?"

Zendor scratched his heavy beard and, after a few minutes, let out a jolly chuckle.

"How can you laugh at a time like this?"

"Because.......you are not going to die, my dear."

Before Lovia could respond, Zendor cast an incantation of sleep upon her. As he stood over her limp body, he couldn't help but marvel at how beautiful she was. Her golden hair with a bluish tinge, her soft, warm hands, her ruby red lips and her highly attractive bosom.....they all made her so lovely. If only he had been a little younger, he might have tried to start a relationship with her. But he was far too old now, and Lovia deserved better.

"Perhaps you will find someone special where you are going....eh, wait a minute. You will.....and my, will he be a handsome one."

Being as gentle as he could, Zendor lifted Lovia's body and carried her to a secret chamber behind the enclave. Inside its rocky walls, few items were particularly eye-catching: there were some old dusty books on the shelves and some broken vials strewn all over the floor. However, there was a peculiar pod of some kind in the middle of the chamber that might be mistaken for a bed. Zendor headed to the pod and spoke a few words, after which the pod's invisible front door suddenly popped open. With this accomplished, Zendor proceeded to place Lovia in the pod, making sure that her body fit perfectly into the assigned space. After a couple of adjustments to the pod's controls, Zendor resealed it. He then quickly headed for the door and was about to leave, but he felt a nagging that forced him to look back. The pod had suddenly become active, a strange mist building up all around it. Zendor smiled.

"Yes.....the cryogenic process is occurring just like Belthasar predicted it would. Soon, the internal conditions of the pod will be such that Lovia's body will cease to decompose for millennia. And the dreamstone framework will assure that her body survives the fall into the sea undamaged. It was unfortunate that Belthasar only had the resources to build this prototype. Well....at least it seems to be working like it should."

Once again, Zendor headed for the door, and again he paused. But this time he did not look back.

"Hopefully the person or persons who find you will be able to help you defeat this Lavos. Me and the other Gurus were confident that the creature could be beaten.....if the right people joined up and confronted it. Ever since you were born, the Gurus felt something special about you. We have always been watching out for you, and we always will. The fate of the world is in your hands, Lovia. May the powers that be grant you victory......may they give you the son that shall lead to the creature's demise."

With this, Zendor left the chamber and sealed the door behind him. As he walked toward the circle of Celestial Wizards in order to add a bit of power to the hopeless action that they were about to propagate, he looked at what remained of Zeal.....a burning island nation preparing to plunge into the sea.

"We couldn't save you, Zeal. May the heavens forgive us for being so arrogant."

And then the seal collapsed as the power of the Mammon Machine faded temporarily. United in both thought and mind, the Wizards and the lone Guru began to chant with the ancient tongue, producing a sphere of brilliant light at the top of the Star Eye. With a unified push, the Order used their minds to direct the temporal distortion at the Ocean Palace. Since their eyes were closed in concentration, they never saw the sphere being deflected by the chasm Lavos had built........nor could they see the energy beams that had passed through the hole in the seal that were now headed at them.....

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As quickly as it had begun, the barrage of energy blasts ceased, but the damage was already done. The once mighty kingdom of Zeal crashed into the massive ocean bellow, the roars of the waves drowning out the screams of the dying Enlightened Ones. The Earthbound Ones, who had always been regarded with the utmost contempt by their superior counterparts, watched in horror as the giant island that had loomed over them for so long sank beneath the water's surface, never to be seen again. Their horror was only compounded when a giant tidal wave came roaring at them from afar. Many Earthbound Ones managed to make it to the shelters that were located underground, but large numbers of them still perished.

In the end, the waves receded, leaving nothing but sparse landmasses and desolate human camps in their retreat. That once great and arrogant kingdom of Zeal was now gone forever, only to exist in the memories and histories of future generations.

However, what is never remembered or spoken of is the dreamstone pod that lay at the bottom of the dark, cold sea which contained the body of a woman. Not just any woman, but the woman who carried inside her the potential to save the world. Lovia, one of the few survivors of the great tragedy that occurred in the year 12,000 B.C. that went on to have some highly memorable adventures and to accomplish some highly memorable things. And this is her story.......

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Chapter I

Mr. Toma Levine was four hours overdue on his delivery, JayTee thought to himself as he adjusted his position behind the thick shrubbery that surrounded Truce Forest. Him and his men had arrived at this location approximately six hours ago in order to meet up with Toma, a wandering treasure hunter who had built up quite a reputation for finding rare and unusual items that no one else knew existed. JayTee had arrived two hours ahead of Toma in order to scout the area and make sure the self-centered, egotistical wanderer had not set up any kind of ambush or other nasty surprises. Then there was the added concern over Ozzie's hench patrols, which seemed to pop up in the most unlikely places when least expected, something which JayTee wanted to avoid at all costs. He had not survived so many years of conflict in order to be killed by a bunch of fat, halfwit henches who could barely throw a punch.

It was approaching midnight, and JayTee was becoming impatient. His fellow mercenary comrades knew that their boss wanted this package very badly, but they also knew that JayTee was not a man of infinite patience. Besides, they thought, the bitter cold must be getting to him by now. As Jaytee began to sharpen the already deadly edge of his lager-than-life battleaxe, one of the men known only as "Tracker" came over and tiredly slumped down beside him.

"Well.......I think that Toma's a no show, man. Maybe we should be packing up and-"

"No one is leaving here until I get what I came for," JayTee stated in a very threatening tone.

"But boss.......the guys are getting restless. If they don't see some action soon, they'll burst. We can't just keep hiding in the woods forever, and I think you know that."

And boy did he know it. The men he had chosen were the lowest of the low, the most crafty and ruthless men in all the Kingdom of Guardia. Their allegiance to him was ever wavering, held only by his promise to them of immense wealth. If Toma did not make an appearance tonight, the men would be gone by morning.....and there wasn't a thing he could do to stop them. _Come on, Toma. Where in god's name are you?_

Taking a quick look at the ashen and hollow faces of his ragtag team, he knew that he only had until midnight. After that.......there was nothing on the horizon but trouble.

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The howling winds of that bitterly cold night also presided over the thoughts of another man, although the subject of the latter's far differed from those of the former. Atop a cliff overlooking the vast ocean that bordered what would soon be his castle, Magus's only thought was on Lavos, the creature that even now sucked the life from the world....just as it had done with Zeal so long ago. As his cape rippled under the continued pounding of the twilight winds, Magus stared coldly at the henches who were working night and day to erect the grandiose structure that would soon be the center of the Mystic Empire. Of course, the fool Ozzie still believed that the castle was being built in his honor and to strike fear into the heart of King Guardia. _I suppose that eventually he will realize what has happened....but by then it will be too late. All mystics on earth will hail me as their king.......and then I shall have the power to destroy Lavos._

Magus was just about to begin his nightly meditations when a lowly imp came up to him, covered in the mud and grime that surrounded the construction site.

"Yes......what is it?"

"Sir Magus, we are having extreme difficulty erecting the main tower. It appears that the shrine you had us build at the top of the castle is throwing the entire balance of the tower into jeopardy. Perhaps if you allowed us to tear it down..."

"Silence!!!! The shrine will stay. I don't care if you have to put yourself into the foundation in order to hold it up. Just do as you are told."

"But sire......it just can't be done. And I question whether Ozzie has approved or even heard of this place. Perhaps I should inform him-"

__

Trumanis.....centrenio.......purgarum!

No sooner had the words left Magus's mind that the tiny imp began to break down into smaller and smaller pieces of flesh and bone. As he released his final, tormented scream, the imp disintegrated into nothingness. All of the workers stopped and looked at the sight in horror.

"I will have no insubordination!! You pathetic creatures will finish my fortress on time and without complaints....or you shall all suffer the fate of your unfortunate friend. Now.....get back to work....and send someone to replace this fool as your new representative. And this time, please choose a little more carefully."

The workers wasted no time in getting back to their duties, electing a naga-ette to represent them appropriately and immediately getting back to finishing the castle. And now that they had a new motivation to keep working, Magus could now devote his thoughts to the complete execution of his revenge. _Just wait until I get my hands on the Celestial Book of Magic, Lavos. On that day, even the dark emptiness of the universe will not be able to hide you from my wrath...._

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JayTee was about to call it quits when a loud crash could be heard in the bushes just a few meters away. As if on cue, the men quickly and quietly placed themselves at their respective positions, ready for anything. Well.....almost everything.....

"Get moving, JayTee!!! Unless you want to be eaten alive!!"

As soon as the now frightened Toma said these words, a large Tubster came rushing at them from the thick darkness of the forest, claws unsheathed and ready to destroy.

"Toma!!! What in blazes did you do to him? I thought I told you to keep your activities to yourself!!"

"Huff.....puff.......I...tried, ok? I made some honest winnings at Porrian Black Jack, and this guy got all upset over it! I can't help it if I'm lucky!"

"Yeah.....or a very good cheat......alright, I'm through running."

JayTee turned to face the distorted bluish blur that was rushing head long at him and took one step. It was all he needed. In the blink of an eye, JayTee had managed to unsheathe "Frisky," the name of his legendary unbreakable battleaxe, and in one smooth motion cleave the raging creature in two. Bluish ooze sprayed all over JayTee's rugged mercenary outfit, but he did not even bat an eyelash. And then it was over.

Still covered with the creature's disgusting innards, JayTee went over to a nearby bush which he suspected had a frightened little man named Toma inside, which it did. With his powerful, gigantic hands JayTee lifted Toma by the collar of his peasant's coveralls, looking him directly in his baby blue eyes.

"Seeing that you have caused me and my men so much trouble, I hope to heaven you were able to get what I wanted."

"What do I look like? A liar? When Toma the Explorer says he'll get something, he gets it."

"Very good, then. So where is it?"

"In my pocket. I'll give it to you if you put me down."

JayTee, somewhat calmer but no less upset, placed Toma on the hard forest floor. Reaching inside his pocket, Toma pulled out what looked like an ancient scroll, withered and discolored as if it had not seen the surface of the earth in ages.

"Boss.....you mind telling me why we risked our necks for some dried up piece of paper?"

"This is not just any piece of paper....it is a map."

"Oh?" replied the man known as Ripper.

"And what kind of map are we talking about here? The map that leads us to the land of Oz?"

Most of the men broke out laughing at the remark, even Toma. But JayTee was far from laughing.

"This map leads to the greatest treasure in all the world: the ancient island storehouse of Zeal."

"And we're supposed to believe that? That place is just a myth! No one has ever been able to find it or prove it exists. So why should we risk our lives trying to find a fairy tale?"

"Because, Ripper.....this fairy tale may be Guardia's last hope of beating the mystics once and for all and ending this war. Besides, the place is rumored to be loaded with gold. But, if you guys don't want to come........"

"What are you, nuts? Of course I'm in! And so are the others.....right, guys?"

They all cheered in positive affirmation and prepared to get underway to embark on a brand new journey. But while Toma and the others cheered and drank and made merry, JayTee was occupied with his memories of a home that had been taken from him....of a sister that he had lost. _I swore long ago that I'd get you, Magus. And even if I have to move heaven and earth, I'll make you pay for what you did to my family......what you did to my sister._

The unforgiving chill of the night continued to plague the surroundings as a full moon glowed eerily overhead. And while JayTee was lost in thought, a shadow vanished from behind the trees and into the night, having seen all that it needed to see.

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Chapter 2

King Guardia had a worried look on his face as he stared into the sleepless faces of the men seated at the table around him. For centuries, the Knights of the Square Table had upheld order and justice in the kingdom, but lately the knights had had their hands full. Magus's special hench units carried out daily raids against Porre and Dorino, and even the ever-conservative chancellor feared the worst. From all the tactical data his men had given him at this emergency war meeting, it appeared that Zenan Bridge could fall by winter. That is, unless these knights could come up with a last minute plan, which seemed extremely unlikely from his standpoint. Then again, these knights had managed to do some pretty incredible things in years past, and they had always come through for the kingdom in its time of greatest need. After a few minutes of silence, the king resumed his discourse.

"Fellow knights, our kingdom is in its darkest hour. With the legions of Ozzie lined up to invade the kingdom by December, I am open to suggestions as to how we can avoid this. Sir Fireblade, would you do the honors?"

"Certainly, your majesty. As I am sure most of you are aware, the combined might of henches and mystics is dealing a heavy blow to our forces. Even as we speak, untrained reserves are being placed on the battlefield.....as of yesterday, the casualty count had risen to over 50,000, and that is without today's figures. If we do not win a decisive victory soon, I'm afraid we will start to run into recruitment problems."

The king had to take deep breath before moving on. "Thank you, Fireblade. I hope that it does not come to forced drafting....our subjects deserve so much more. Thank you. Sir Doan, have you anything to add to this?"

"Only that our weapons have seen better days. Those damn mystics and their magic....whenever we get a clean shot, they cast some damn spell or summon some powerful creature from the netherworld that makes our weapons useless. And hench hide is tough...it takes nearly 50 slashes to bring one down with an iron sword, let alone a bronze one. All of the other creatures, too....nagettes, bats, snakes, lancers....all of them. After every battle, we have to make new blades! The blacksmiths are having a fit! In fact-"

"I've heard enough."

All of the knights, with their royal silver and gold armor glinting in the candle light, turned to stare in disbelief at the outburst that had come from the furthest end of the table. Even the king, who encouraged a relaxed atmosphere at the Square Table, was shocked by the outburst. Doan was about to object, but the originator of the rude outburst would not be denied.

"I am sick and tired of coming to these meetings only to hear more negative reports. No wonder our soldiers are losing so many battles....they feel as if the war is already over! What happened to the cries of 'Victory or bust!' that once echoed through these halls? Have we all lost hope? As long as there are fighters willing to believe in the cause, we still have a chance....and we owe every person in the kingdom of Guardia to keep fighting as if there is a chance. These people need hope, not complaining and whining!"

King Guardia decided he had taken enough from this upstart. "And what makes you think that you can come into this room, sit at this table with all of these fine men, and make such outrageous claims.....Sir Cyrus?"

Cyrus, the youngest member of the Knights of the Square Table, decided it would be best to lower his tone somewhat. After all, he hadn't come all this way to just be dismissed from the table. Being a part of this elite group had been his dream since boyhood, and it had taken a great deal of blood and tears to come this far. Who would have thought that the brown-haired, overtly egotistical kid from Choras would turn out to be a knight of the kingdom? However, after many battles against the scum of the earth, Cyrus had proven himself to be the best swordsman on earth, a fact that had played a big role in getting him here in the first place. To most of these guys, he was just a rookie....but that would change soon enough, after the war was over. Having had a few moments to recompose himself, he continued on.

"I am trying to get you all to see that we need to change our perspective. If we do not, the war is as good as lost. When the hench army of Glancor surrounded the castle during the final days of the Great Hench War, did the knights of the kingdom give up? No! They went on to pull of one of the greatest victories in the history of the kingdom, and I say we can do the same....if we believe!"

"No amount of believing will defeat Ozzie or Magus, Sir Cyrus. We need to start facing reality and-"

"With all due respect, Knight Captain Morigon, if we continue on this path, we will surely be defeated! What we need now is to resurrect the morale of our forces by giving them hope....in the form of the Masamune!"

The knights stared at Cyrus for a moment, then broke out in laughter. Fireblade was the first to regain his breath, so he spoke first.

"Are you joking? That sword is a myth....a legend, nothing more! You can't beat Magus with a legend!"

"But the Masamune is not a legend! It is real....and I know someone who can prove it!"

"Oh? And who would this be, Cyrus?"

"I am sure you have all heard of the sorceress of Dorino?"

"That witch! How can she help to prove anything? She's a loon....everybody knows that!"

"I disagree. There are those who have told me this 'loon' has a remarkable knowledge of ancient secrets, and I'll bet anything that she could tell us the location of the sword."

There was a silence as King Guardia pondered what had just been said. Finally, with a furrowed forehead, the king spoke.

"The Masamune may very well exist and this woman......I believe Lovia is her name....might very well have the information we want. But we simply cannot spare any forces to go on a wild goose chase! We are running low as is. I'm sorry, Cyrus, but I'm afraid there is not much else I can do."

"You don't need to do a thing, your majesty. I will go to Dorino and check out this woman myself!"

"Have you gone mad, Cyrus! We can't spare your sword arm! As your knight captain, I, Sir Morigan, refuse to let you go alone into enemy territory!"

"Begging you pardon, sire, but Cyrus wont be going alone...Squire Glenn will go with him....and so will I."

"Glenn is just a lad of barely 15 years! And to be honest.....I would never trust Cyrus in the hands of a drunk like you, Ogre!"

At this remark, Sir Ogre broke out in a fit of drunken laughter. Ogre was probably the most questionable member of the knight order, having come from a slum in the outskirts of Truce. It was obvious from his days at the knight academy on the island of Avon that he had only average skills in all areas, definitely not Knight of the Square Table material. However, his uncanny ability to consume alcoholic beverages made him a favorite among the young recruits. This, combined with the fact that he could never be beaten in a jousting match when drunk, made him into somewhat of a kingdom legend. His notorious escapades combined with his womanizing ways made him the topic of much gossip around the castle....that is, until he saved the life of the king during an attempt at his life. An imp had managed to sneak into the castle under the guise of a beggar and requested an audience with the king. King Guardia, kind hearted as always, granted the beggar his request...and as soon as he got close enough, the imp pulled out a dagger and was about to throw it at the king...but he never got the chance. Ogre, who had been drinking heavily as usual, stumbled into the extravagant medieval throne room to offer the king some fine spirits...and knocked over the imp in the process. The dagger fell out of his hand and the guards quickly arrested him. On that day, Ogre was given the title of "Sir Ogre of Beer," by which he has been called ever since.

Once Ogre regained his drunken normality, he continued. "Hey now! In case you all have forgotten, nobody can clean my clock when I'm drunk....and I'm always drunk! And don't worry about Glenn....the lad is good at swordplay. Some would say he's even better than Cyrus! So...all together, I say that Sir Cyrus couldn't be in better hands. Besides, every journey has to have an attractive wino, and Glenn and Cyrus just don't cut it! So, whether you like it or not, these guys need me, Morigan."

"Hmmm...perhaps you are right. Heaven knows you'll at least give them something to laugh about. All right, I'll give you four days to check this out. You leave for Dorino in the morning...that is, if your majesty approves?"

The king gave a quick nod, after which the knights enjoyed a healthy dose of Royal Wine, provided by Ogre, of course. The laughter that followed made the otherwise cold and lifeless walls of Guardia Castle just a little bit human. But they all knew that this happiness was only temporary, and with the dawn of a new day would come more pain, death, and suffering. As the group enjoyed their temporary reprieve, Cyrus was lost in thought. _Oh, Sir JayTee....if only you were still alive....the kingdom needs you. I just hope that this Lovia can help us. Otherwise, the kingdom may indeed be lost._

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As the sun rose over the towering trees of the forest outside of Castle Guardia, Toma awoke to find that JayTee had already started a fire and placed some biguns bits on a stick to roast. He was staring at the castle in the distance when Toma tapped him out of his reverie.

"JayTee? Is something wrong?"

"No....I was just thinking about the past. You know, I used to be a pretty good knight back in the day."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Some said I was even better than King Guardia I at wielding a sword in battle. But my weapon of choice has always been this battleaxe. I would wager that no one can handle an axe better than me. My throwing knives are pretty handy, too."

"So....why aren't you a knight anymore? I mean...the kingdom would never have let you go if you're as good as they say."

JayTee looked away for a few moments, then responded in a quiet tone. "During the final days of the Great Hench War, I came up with a plan to defeat the hench army that had surrounded the castle. It was risky and would leave us totally open and vulnerable if we failed, but we had no other ideas. The king approved it...but not because he liked it, and the next day the Knights of the Square Table along with all the regular and royal knight regiments engaged the henches in combat. The plan went off without a hitch, of course, but none of us had anticipated what Glancor would do. Faced with certain defeat, Glancor ordered a false retreat away from the castle. Since it seemed that the battle had been won, we failed to chase them down and finish them off. What we did not know was that Glancor had lead his army to Truce...where they went on to massacre the entire town. Everybody was killed and everything was burned to the ground. Needless to say the knights of the kingdom routed the remnants of the hench army and finished them off, but the shame and terror of the Truce Massacre cast a dark shadow over the king's reign. Rather than let the king take the fall for the deaths, I pleaded guilty and said that it had been my plan that had lead Glancor to commit the atrocity....and the penalty for such crimes is death, of course. However, the king could not bare to have me executed, so he arranged to have my execution faked. As a result, I can never return to the castle or anyplace nearby, not even my old log cabin in the woods outside of the cathedral. Such is the price of loyalty."

"Man! What a bum rap! So....now you hang with guys like them? Do they know?"

"No....and I'd prefer you never tell them or anyone else. Besides, I doubt anyone would believe you."

"Yeah....you're probably right. But it would sure make a hell of a tale to spew at a bar! So where are we going now? To find this ancient treasure trove?"

"I'm afraid not. Have you even looked at it? The map's written in the ancient tongue...nobody can read that stuff anymore. No one except Spooks, that is."

Toma put a hand through his ocean of reddish brown hair and turned to look at JayTee. "And who exactly is this person, anyways?"

"She's someone I met when I was doing a job in Dorino. A real hot one and a friend, but very mystical and freaky...hence the nickname I gave her. Yeah...Lovia's one hell of a woman, but so are the folks who raised her. That dad of hers is the best bar tender that Dorino's ever seen, and her mom....well, let's just say she can roast a mean boar. Anyways, while I was there, she told me she knew a lot about the ancient culture and language of Zeal. She even showed me some weird books....books she said contained powerful magic. Of course, nobody believes her and treats her like a nut, but I think she can help us."

The other mercenaries began to wake up as the smell of fresh biguns bits reached their nostrils. Slowly but surely, all of the rouges headed over to the fire and removed their individual shares of nourishment. They would all be ready to go soon, all ready to collect on their take of this legendary treasure they were supposedly going to find. JayTee hoped they would find more than that. _Lovia....you've never let me down...so don't start now. I need you...and so does the kingdom. I just hope it's enough...for all of our sakes._

****

Chapter 3

_There he was....in her dreams again. Just like he always was....standing in front of her, talking about something or other. And then she felt herself getting sleepier...her eyes closing....her body falling to the ground. The last thing she would see were his lips, smiling that famous caring smile of his. Why, Zendor? Why did you do it? Why......._

Lovia woke up, sweat dripping down her forehead and drenching her night gown. She didn't know why she reacted this way to the dream.....she had had the same dream every night since she could remember. And that was the trouble...she couldn't remember much of anything about herself except her name. Then there was Zendor...the Guru of Power from long ago....and the knowledge of the ancients....but not much else. How she wanted there to be something else!

After a few moments, Lovia rose from the bed and went to have a look out the window. The sun had risen already, its rays of glorious light raining down on a town that had been plagued by the legions of darkness for far too long. The birds by her window were singing a delightful melody, and the orchids were in full bloom in the small garden that she had planted. A scene of loveliness that she had not witnessed in a long time, she thought to herself. Zeal, too, had wonderful days like this....but Zeal was gone now and somehow she had managed to survive and awaken in a world filled with strangers. She had been lucky that such nice folks had found her and taken her in as their own. Still, she would like to know why all of this had happened.....after all, Zendor must have had a good reason for making sure she survived. But what could this reason be?

With that question in mind, Lovia brushed her beautiful strands of bluish-golden hair and went to have something to eat. Movius and Laruba, the people who had found her, lived in a plain enough house...average coloring, furniture, and atmosphere. Not nearly as extravagant as the shrines and living quarters of Zeal, but sufficient for the time being. As she sliced the fresh bread that Movious had probably brought in from the market earlier that morning, she wondered why the people of this time lived such difficult lives. Had none of the knowledge of Zeal survived the disaster? It was obvious that only the mystics had access to the ancient magic knowledge, albeit in a very limited fashion, but surely the humans who followed the Enlightened Ones had been able to reproduce the technology and the wisdom gathered during the zenith of Zeal's power!

Yet all Lovia could see around her was a world that suffered from the pain and death of war. Had these fools learned nothing from the past? Did they not realize that unless they prepared, Lavos would destroy them just as he had destroyed her homeland? She figured they did not. _What a pity.....after millennia of change, the human race is still too arrogant to admit its flaws. If only the Gurus had survived....they might be able to set these people right._

Just then, Movious and Laruba walked through the front door. They were a little surprised to see her up so early.

"Honey? Why are you up so early? Did you sleep well? I'll bet it was that dream again, wasn't it?"

"Yeah....but I'm ok now, really. No need to worry about me. I'll be fine."

"Really? Because you don't have to come to the tavern today if you don't want to..."

"What? Are you kidding? I wouldn't miss a day at the tavern for anything! Besides...a lot of people depend on me to bring them their daily dose of weirdness. Who am I to disappoint them?"

"As usual, you're right. Well, come along! Our patrons are waiting!"

Lovia nodded her head and went to her room to fetch her ancient texts when she felt a sudden presence....a familiar one. She looked out the window to see if she could spot anyone, but the streets were filled with nothing but commoners. She decided it must have been her imagination and left with Movious to open the tavern for business. If she would have looked a little beyond the town's main streets, she would have seen a figure clad in the familiar robes of a Zealian Guru. _She is doing so well.......time is moving us at the right pace....let us hope that it is not the wrong place._

**********

The tower had finally been completed, and as the sun rose everywhere else except for his cloud-shielded abode, Magus witnessed the completion of his dream. After days of agonizing labor, the henches and goblins along with a few outlaws had managed to complete the structure of darkness that would soon be known as his castle. It looked so glorious in the darkness, Magus thought. All of his scheming and plotting would finally pay off. Now all he had to do was get the rest of the mystics and monsters to believe in a simple lie....to believe that Lavos was the ultimate solution to the human problem. They had believed everything else he had told them....why should they not believe him on this as well? And once he had their following, all he would need would be the book of ancient magic......

"Excuse me, Magus. I am here to make my report."

"Then go ahead and be done with it, you pathetic naga-ette! I have neither the time nor the patience to deal with insignificant worms such as yourselves! Spit it out!"

"Well, sir. As you can see, the tower is finished. You may inhabit the castle at any time you wish."

"Tell me something I don't know. Will that be all, naga-ette? Or is there something else?"

"Yes....there is. What should I tell Ozzie, sire?"

"You will tell that bloated toad absolutely nothing! When I feel it is the time for him to be in on this, then I shall tell him myself."

"But I am sure that Ozzie is becoming suspicious of our prolonged absence....what if he decides to come unannounced?"

"I will deal with that when and if it happens. Now go and stop pestering me with your spineless whining!"

The naga-ette hurriedly removed himself from his presence and walked quickly to the operations tent set up just outside the castle. It was just as well, Magus thought. He really wanted to be alone right now to gaze at his creation. The castle itself was constructed with black onyx stones, polished to perfection and tainted with a slight tinge of velvet. It was a vertical castle, with the battlements located more toward the top than the sides, a modification that the Guru of War had told him long ago....before he had been banished by the king for treason. His father had always been a bit of a softie, Magus thought....he had never looked up to him at all. Yet his mother was equally unimpressive, letting Lavos abuse of the one thing he cared for in the world: his sister. And everyday he lived, he swore to himself that he would find her at all costs. But first....he had to destroy Lavos. Not for the pitiful creatures known as humans, but for Schala, the one person who had ever really understood him. While his mind dwelled on this, he gazed at the statue of a dragon that he had selected as a decoration for the top tower. That dragon had actually existed once.....after his father had killed it, he had brought it home to show him. Needless to say, he was not impressed. He had seen far worse things in his nightmares......after staring at the face of Lavos for the first time, nothing else came close to invoking fear in him. _But all these things are memories of long ago....I must purge myself of the past. Only the here and now matters....only destroying that which I hate matters. These pathetic mystics can carry on their pathetic little war for as long as they want. After I get what I want, I'll make sure that they get what they deserve....especially Ozzie. That fool couldn't cast a spell to save his life....and he calls himself a mystic! Ha!_

After a few moments more of meditation, Magus entered the castle and proceeded to go to the top chamber. After he had entered, he sealed the door with a spell. The last thing he needed were distractions.....he needed to prepare....for the arrival of Lavos.

****

Chapter 4

The road that lead to Dorino was filled with dangers, but JayTee and his band of misfits had seen worse in their lifetimes, and the prize that awaited them at the Dorino Tavern was far too important to be abandoned for the sake of safety. After spending the better part of a day looking over topographical maps of the lower hemispherical region, the men had decided to cut through the Truce Badlands, which would cut two and a half days from their journey. Although the Badlands were rumored to be the home of remnant henches from the Great Hench War, Toma had assured JayTee that they could be negotiated with. For all their sakes, JayTee hoped he was right.

They had covered 30 miles so far today, and Toma had suggested they stop for a brief rest before continuing on into the heart of the Badlands. After a bit of arguing from the more rugged and weathered mercenaries, the group settled down next to a rock that had been assigned the name "Witch's Backbone" by wandering travelers due to the eerie glow it gave off at twilight.

"If we keep this pace up, we should make Zenan Bridge by dawn," JayTee said as he settled down next to the weathered rock with a mug of his famous "Renegade's Brew."

"Yeah, but if you keep drinking that stuff, the only way you'll make it to Dorino is as a dead man."

"Very funny, Ripper. But we could all be dead if we don't watch out for those henches."

"Are you kidding, JayTee? Henches are the laughing stocks of the earth! I'm sure that I could take on a whole army of them with both my hands behind my back! Why should we be even remotely frightened of them?"

"You seem to forget, pal, that those 'laughing stocks' started the bloodiest war in history, and it is still a very hard fact that our weapons are highly ineffective against them. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that we are all veteran warriors, we would be as good as dead already."

"Perhaps....but we've all changed since the war, and you didn't have old Frisky back then. Say, you've never told us where and how you got her. Were you ever going to get around to it?"

"Maybe after this damn war's over. Believe me, there's quite a story behind that battleaxe, and I'm sure you'll all laugh your asses of once you-"

A sudden surge of screaming cut JayTee off. Both he and Ripper turned simultaneously to see a gigantic horde of henches charging at them from the distance, the screaming they had heard originating from the mouth of one very frightened Mr. Toma.

"Well, Ripper, guess we'll get to find out just pathetic these henches of yours really are. C'mon, men! Frisky says we take these sacks of trash out, and that's what I intend to do. How about the rest of you spineless wimps? Are you women or are you men?"

With a unified roar, the league of mercenaries proceeded to meet the enemy, JayTee unsheathing his battleaxe and his throwing knives before taking lead of the defensive maneuver. Toma, however, found a convenient hiding place behind the Witch's Backbone, hoping that this whole mess would just go away.

**********

The Knights of the Square Table had decided to take a safer route through Truce Village, despite the fact that this would cost them more time. Once at the edge of town, they would take a merchant's barge to the shores of the southern continent, which would leave them only a day's walk away from Dorino. Of course, the knights were going under the guise of wandering travelers, since the mission they were going on was of vital importance to the kingdom and to the war effort. Cyrus, Ogre, and Squire Glenn also knew that no disguise would protect them if the barge were raided by one of Magus's special hench units, which is exactly what had been happening in this region ever since the war started. In fact, the only reason they had been able to charter this merchant barge to Dorino was because the captain was a relative of the king's, albeit a distant one. It had also been decided, with some strong urging from Ogre, that they should spend their last night in Truce at the tavern before heading out south toward the shoreline, and that is exactly what they had done.

As Glenn busied himself with one of the local girls, Cyrus ordered a drink and began to go over the entire journey again with Ogre. "The most dangerous part of this whole mission is going the be the barge crossing. Out in the water we are open to attack from all sorts of different angles.....but once we get on land, we should have no problems defending ourselves."

"Yeah...but you forget that the raids haven't only been at sea, Cyrus. What if Magus decides to launch another raid when we arrive? I know you don't fear the legions of Ozzie's army, Cyrus, but the people of Dorino are helpless against them! If Magus does decide to attack.....we wouldn't be able to do a damn thing to help them."

"I know....but we have to take that risk. Meeting up with Lovia could be our key to ending this war, and I wont throw away that chance out of fear of the unknown. If Magus wants a fight, we'll give him a fight."

"All right, Cyrus. You're the one in charge of this whole thing....I'm just the guy who provides the comic relief, remember?"

"Yeah...and you do a great job of that, Ogre. And you aren't half bad with that Arabian Scimitar, either. One of the best in the world, I hear."

"Yeah, that's what they say. If I wasn't so drunk all the time, I'd probably be the best. But.....reputation has never been a big issue with me. As long as the chicks think my lifestyle is an attractive quality, I'll continue to be good old me....now, if you'll excuse me."

As Ogre stumbled from the table and headed toward the bar to get another couple of drinks, Cyrus could do nothing but laugh. _You would have loved being here, JayTee....a couple of good soldiers serving their kingdom by drinking themselves silly and flirting with the waitresses. I wonder what would have become of you if you hadn't died.....I wonder if this war would have even carried on this far if you had been around. So many things have changed.....damn this war! And damn Ozzie and Magus! I swear that if I ever get my hands on them........._

Cyrus was stirred from his bitter reverie as Glenn, who seemed to have his hands full with the bar maidens, came by the table with an invitation to dance. Tired of dwelling on past memories, Cyrus decided to join Glenn and Ogre in their merriment, knowing all too well that what lay ahead for them all was a bleak future if they failed.

**********

Unfortunately, the future was looking even bleaker for JayTee and his comrades. The battle between them and the henches had gone on for hours, with no clear winner as of yet. Even now, the others looked on as JayTee slashed mercilessly through the hordes of monstrous creatures, his legendary battleaxe easily cutting through their layered iron armor. However, JayTee himself was beginning to marvel at the extraordinary bloodlust these creatures seemed to posses. _Why were these creatures fighting so viciously over this worthless soil? What could they possibly be hiding at the heart of the badlands?_

Of course, Mr. Toma was still conveniently hiding behind the Witch's Backbone, safely secluded from all the carnage going on around him. He, too, was doing some serious thinking of his own. _How could he have miscalculated so much? He had traversed this region many times in the past on his pursuit of rare and valuable treasures, and he had always been able to deal with the hench lowlifes that had chosen to hide from the law in the badlands. Yet these henches had come out of nowhere......completely unwilling to negotiate. In fact.....these guys looked nothing like the scum that used to hang around these parts....if he didn't know any better, he would swear they were......._

A sudden clang against the rock face interrupted his thinking process. As he turned to see what had disturbed him so, he narrowly missed an encounter with the edge of a Logan Blade. Terrified for his life, Toma left the safety of the rock only to be greeted by three of the ugliest henches he had ever seen. Toma closed his eyes as they moved in for the kill.......and was stunned at how long this quick death was taking. Upon reopening his eyes, Toma saw the imposing figure of Ripper as he tore into the henches with his trusty Firestone Blade. He seemed to be holding his own.....until a blade forged by demonic hands tore through his flesh and skewered his heart. Ripper slumped to the ground, blood flowing from his chest and mouth, his eyes frozen open with rage and surprise radiating from their now lifeless interiors. Toma, shocked at the sudden passing of his friend, futilely attacked the henches out of the heights of his rage.....he was struck to the ground in an instant by the hench with the demonic blade.

"I've had enough of this. It's time we stoped playing with these fools and finished this little skirmish. Bring JayTee and his little traveling companion."

"What of the rest?"

"They have seen our faces.....dispose of them. The king must never hear that we are out here."

Meanwhile, JayTee had increased his efforts at having seen his friend and comrade slain so brutally. He slashed, kicked, and punched with all of his might until he could no longer wield his trusted battleaxe. After hours of fighting against a seemingly endless wall of enemies, JayTee collapsed to the dusty and barren wasteland floor. However, before he passed out from exhaustion, he saw the last of his men slaughtered and their weapons pried from their lifeless fingers. As his vision faded into nothingness, he caught a glimpse of a very familiar hench taking hold of his legendary axe.....and for an instant a sense of horror washed over him. _It....it can't be........you're dead...........it can't....be true.....Glancor.........._

**********

The rays of the morning sun made the housetops of Truce glisten like pure gold, if only for an instant. As the rays passed through the inn room windows, the knights awakened to begin their journey to the southern shores, where their barge awaited them. Ogre had a bit of difficulty putting on his knightly apparel due to the fact that he had consumed quite a bit of ale the night before, and Glenn (after dancing with almost every female in the bar) fared no better. However, with a bit of help from Cyrus (who had managed to control himself a bit better than his comrades), they were soon on their way.

Of all the towns within the boundaries of the kingdom, none looked as glorious on days like this than Truce. Sir Cyrus remembered playing here with his friends when his parents came to visit on business, and he was sure Glenn and Ogre had similar memories. To think that the young child who used to prance carefree through these streets had become a knight of the kingdom, the pride of Choras. However, there would be time for such things later.....after their mission has been successful, if indeed it was destined to be so. The remainder of the journey was quite uneventful, punctuated by encounters with fellow travelers and well-wishers. As night descended upon the skies over the northern continent of the kingdom of Guardia, Cyrus and his companions decided to rest momentarily, but not to set up camp for the night. They could not risk being compromised by any of the hoodlums that tended to frequent these trails at night. So, after Ogre had a few drinks to revitalize his energy reserves, the group again resumed their journey.

As the noonday sun rose over the blue skies of the southern shores, the three gentlemen arrived at the shipyards to board their merchant barge to Dorino. After a bit of small talk with the captain, Cyrus, Ogre, and Glenn went to their quarters to catch up on the sleep they had missed. All seemed to be going according to plan....until some last minute travelers arrived and asked the captain for passage on his barge.

"I'm afraid you gentlemen are too late. I am carrying the maximum number of travelers for this voyage. If you'll just wait until the morrow, I'm sure another barge will come around and-"

"We have no time to wait, old man."

"There is nothing I can do for you fellows. Now, if you'll kindly get off my ship, I can be on my way....."

"We are coming on board, and there is not a thing you can do about it. Here's some money for your trouble. Now get out of our way!"

As the four hooded strangers came aboard the barge, the captain opened the pouch they had given him to find 50 solid gold coins....and he certainly was not going to argue with that. While the captain proceeded to place his golden treasure in his cabin chest, the strangers began to look around for some specific individuals. Suddenly, one of the four hooded figures pointed in the direction of Ogre, who had emerged from his quarters to get a drink.

"That's one of them! I'm sure of it!"

"Are you sure? We cannot afford to make a mistake on this. We get one shot...that's it. If we screw up and get the wrong individuals...."

"No! I'm sure of it! That's Sir Ogre of Beer, one of the knights of the Square Table. And if he's here....then the other knights must be here as well."

"Hmmm....I see. Very good, then. It would appear that your source was correct."

"So....when do we make our move?"

"We wait until nightfall......then we strike."

As the strange hooded individuals were guided by the captain to some temporary quarters, the barge's anchor was brought aboard and the shorelines were loosed. The journey toward the southern continent was well underway.......

****

Chapter 5 

JayTee awakened from his forced slumber to find himself in what passed for a cell. Judging from the darkness of his cell and the makeup of the walls, he deduced that he was underground.....wherever here happened to be. It was also clear that Toma was not anywhere in the vicinity....if he was, JayTee was sure he would have heard his whining or frantic screams by now. How such a spineless wimp had become the best explorer in the known world was beyond him. As JayTee proceeded to investigate the remainder of his droll and damp surroundings, a pair of henches appeared at the entrance to the cell.

"What do you guys want? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"I think you know why we're here. Our boss would like to have a word with his long time friend."

"If your boss is who I think he is, we have nothing to say to each other. Besides.....I don't talk with hench scum like you!"

"Well.....we don't exactly need your permission now, do we?"

Before JayTee could react, a mystic who had been hiding behind the two hench guards cast a paralyzing spell on him, making him completely helpless. The guards then proceeded to drag him along the lifeless and bloodstained corridors of this subterranean hell until they came up to an imposing door with a heckran skull suspended above the frame. One of the henches knocked and awaited the appropriate response. He soon received it.

"Bring him in. Then leave us. I do not want to be disturbed."

"Yes, sir!"

With reckless abandon, the guards flung the door open and threw the disabled JayTee on the floor, causing some of the ancient wounds along his arms to reopen. As he lay on the floor with blood flowing from countless wounds, an imposing figure clad in tolorian armor and wearing the ancient gauntlet of the hench race stood from his makeshift command chair and approached his helpless prisoner. After a few swift kicks and a punch or two to the face, the figure summoned a mystic with his mind and ordered him to remove the paralysis. Once this was done, the mystic vanished, leaving a conscious JayTee to stare into the face of pure evil. With a cold laugh, the hench-like creature finally spoke.

"So....you remember me, do you?"

"How could anyone forget your ugly mug?"

"Ha ha ha! Still have that deplorable sense of humor, JayTee? I thought you would have matured a bit more since our last encounter. I can see now that I was mistaken. No matter. I didn't have you brought here so that we could chat about old times. After I get the information I want, you and your little friend will both be dead."

"Then you're wasting your time. You might as well kill me now because I plan on telling you nothing!"

"Perhaps your squirming little traveling companion, Toma, will be more cooperative."

"Toma may be spineless, but he's not traitor. He'd rather die than divulge anything to the likes of you!"

In a fit of rage, Glancor swung his massive fist and knocked JayTee halfway across the room, causing him to collide with a mound of human skulls. Before he could recover, the raging beast descended upon him and grabbed him by the throat with his massive, reptilian hands.

"Either you tell me what I want to know.....or I will squeeze the life from your humanly frail body with my bare hands!"

"And....just......what exactly....do...you...want...to know?"

"I want to know how you got here....who sent you....how did you know we were out here?"

"I might be.....better....able....to...answer those....questions....if you eased.....your grip."

That humorous barb got JayTee another journey across the room, but this time Glancor returned to his chair and assumed his military discipline once more. His massive frame would have smashed any other chair, but somehow this particular chair managed to support his bulk no matter how much he reclined. As he turned to see where JayTee had landed, he began to speak in that arrogant tone he was so famous for.

"I'm sure you are wondering how I managed to survive the king's purge, since supposedly I and all of my hench minions had reportedly been disposed of. Ha! The truth of the matter is that your precious knights did indeed pursue us with a lustful vengeance, slashing and killing one hench after another. After only a day, the knights of the kingdom reduced my army of thousands to an army of barely one hundred. Things looked bleak indeed......until I decided on a bold course of action. I figured that no matter how brave or daring the knights of Guardia were, they would never dare pursue us into the depths of the badlands. As soon as the knights saw us heading into the badlands, they gave us up for dead and returned to tell their king the good news. And they would have been right.....had we not found this ancient enclave created by the frequent vagrants who have passed through this region over the generations. After a few months of modifications, we were able to turn this place into a fortress....or, more accurately, a training camp."

That little bit of news startled JayTee out of the intense pain he was feeling. A training camp? Out here? Nobody in the kingdom had any idea that such activities were taking place in this ravaged and forgotten region. But what could the henches possibly be training for? If they were preparing for another war, they might as well not waste their time. The kingdom of Guardia had learned much over the course 15 years, and any such repeat attempt by these henches to overthrow the kingdom would surely end in failure, something that Glancor would never tolerate. So what could they possibly be planning?

As if reading his mind, Glancor let out an ominous laugh. After what seemed like an eternity, he rose majestically from his chair and began to pace the expanse of the gothic room while holding one of his trophy skulls in his titanic hand.

"I suppose you would like to know what we are training for, yes? Well, it's really quite simple: we are training for a total invasion of the kingdom of Guardia, beginning with a siege on Guardia Castle."

"Are you insane, Glancor? Your puny little rag-tag army wouldn't last five minutes in a fight with the kingdom knights, not to mention the Knights of the Square Table. You'd be committing suicide!"

"Normally, that would be true. However, there is one thing you have failed to consider. This operation of mine is not part of a solo effort, but a small piece in a brilliant puzzle. In just a few short days, Magus will remove Ozzie from power and take control of the mystics. Once that is accomplished, he will launch a full scale surprise attack against Zenan Bridge using all of the forces that Ozzie has been unwilling to put into use. And because we know that King Guardia does not expect the attack on Zenan until winter, we should have no problems achieving a decisive victory. Once Zenan falls, Magus and his army will unite with my army of elite henches and together we shall march toward Guardia Castle to snatch the kingdom from the hands of human scum forever!"

"Oh! And I suppose you think we'll just let you walk all over us without putting up a bit of resistance?"

"Oh, we expect you to put up a strong and hearty resistance......but face the facts, JayTee. With our combined might, the kingdom is not only outnumbered, but finished. However, even if we are somehow miraculously defeated, we do have one final ace up our sleeves."

"And what would this 'ace' be?"

"Wouldn't you like to know? Anyways, I believe our little chat is now over. The king obviously didn't send you and you obviously had no idea my army was out here until I told you. Therefore, I believe that the time has come for your immediate death. I shall have the guards bring your pathetic friend, Mr. Toma, and then the festivities can begin. Until then, stay put, will you?"

With that, Glancor unsheathed his demon-edged sword and used its hilt to knock JayTee unconscious. The last thing he saw before he blacked out was his battleaxe in a blood ruby holder above Glancor's command chair.

**********

Toma was nervously pacing back and forth in his cell, the lifeless head in the corner making him more uneasy every time he looked at it. _I wonder what that poor sap did to get his head chopped off_, he asked himself as his mind began feeding him images of fictitious crimes and terrible executions. Just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, a pair of hench guards marched into his cell, grabbed him by his arms, and began to drag him out of his cell.

"May I ask where the hell it is you guys are taking me?"

"Shut up, wimp."

"Hey! I think that was uncalled for. Personally, I think I have fared far better than many of the chaps who have unfortunately ended up in this dump. All things considered, I would go as far to say that-"

"I said shut up!"

With that forceful command, the hunky hench placed a gelatinous substance over Toma's mouth, which sealed itself over the opening and absorbed any and all sound frequencies that attempted to get through. After a few brief moments of twists and turns through halls filled with darkness and terror, Mr. Toma Levine finally came face to face with his final destination: a door that reminded him of all of his past nightmares all at once. Before he could voice any sort of protest, the guards flung him through the door and unto a pile of decaying corpses. Startled by the sight, Toma scrambled away from it only to bump into Glancor himself. With a swift motion, the titanic hench general tore the slime from Toma's mouth deposited him next to a still unconscious JayTee. As the atmosphere in the room grew more and more ominous, Glancor afforded himself one last cackle.

"Now, my friends, you die. Sorry we don't have time to grant any lasts requests, but I am a very busy man. However, rest assured that you will be afforded a proper burial........or cremation. Whatever appears more fitting at the time."

However, being caught up in his glamorous vocal overture, Glancor never saw JayTee leap from the floor and grab his battleaxe from its resting place on the defaced rock wall. In one smooth motion, the rugged warrior cleaved the surprised hench in two, leaving no time for screams or cries of any kind. Aside from the gurgling of the green and purple blood that seeped from the lifeless general's body, the room was eerily silent. The silence was broken soon enough, however, as both men hugged each other and thanked the forces of fate for having sided with them once again. After quickly disposing of the guards outside the door, the two men began to discuss how they might escape from this hell hole.

"Well, we certainly can't leave the way we came in....even if we knew where that was."

"Yeah.......and I suppose asking someone in this place is not a good idea, either. How the hell are we going to get out of here, JayTee?"

"Hmmm.....well, I suppose that Glancor must have had his own ways of getting out of here in a hurry. Maybe if we look around here, we can find something of use......a map or something, perhaps."

In this spirit, both men began to tear through the former general's command room, looking for any information that might help their exodus from this morbid prison a bit easier. However, after hours of looking through piles of decadent bones and old manuscripts, they both came up empty handed. Realizing all may be lost, Toma pried the demon blade from Glancor's lifeless hand and heatedly threw it against a shelf of old texts. To both of their amazements, the shelf retracted and revealed a passage which seemed to lead up towards the surface.

"Toma, you are a genius!"

"Well......I try, anyways."

"Well.....what in Guardia's name are we waiting for! Let's go!"

"Right!"

With that, the warrior and the traveler hurriedly made their way through the dimly lit passageway, making sure to close the entrance behind them.

**********

Meanwhile, as night fell over the merchant barge on its way to Dorino, the Square Table Knights were having themselves a wonderful time in the ship's dining hall, making conversation with the other travelers and taking full advantage of the beautiful serving maidens. Ogre was particularly enjoying the bountiful supply of spirits that the captain had managed to bring aboard. However, in this atmosphere of merriment and joy, no one seemed to notice the hooded figures that steadily made their way over to the table in which the knights were seated. As everyone continued to take advantage of the occasion, the figures raised their hands toward the heavens and began to mumble in quiet tones.

"What do you suppose those bastards are doing, Cyrus?"

"How the hell should I know? They just look like a bunch of drunks to me."

"Maybe......but the way they are mumbling like that. I swear I've seen it before somewhere."

"I'll bet you have, Ogre, since you practically do the same thing every time you get too many drinks into your system."

"Ha ha! Just go ahead and laugh it up, Cyrus. But I'm telling you there's something wrong here."

As Ogre left the table to get something to drink, Cyrus began to study the robed figures more carefully. Come to think of it, their actions and demeanor did remind him of something he hadn't seen in a long time. Suddenly, after seeing their peculiar hand motions, a terrible fear gripped his heart. They were mystics, and they were here to bring an end to this little trip of theirs. Something had to be done, and quickly.

"Ogre! Glenn! Prepare for battle!"

At the sound of his voice, both Glenn and Ogre unsheathed their particular weapons and awaited the orders of their leader, albeit Ogre did it a bit more slowly than Glenn due to his drunken state. At the sound of the unsheathing blades, the mystics ceased their mumbling and vanished in an eerie mist. Suddenly, several flashes of brilliant lightning struck the ship and set it quickly ablaze, causing everyone on board to go into a massive panic.

"Bloody hell! Why didn't I see it sooner!?"

"Even if you had, there was nothing you could have done, Cyrus. Our only concern now should be in getting as many of these people off of this ship as we can."

"You are right, Glenn. I just hope the damn mages didn't destroy the spare rafts, as well."

After making their way through the flames to the lower decks where the rafts were stored, the knights quickly realized that most of them had also been set on fire by the rampant flames. However, it seemed that they had missed 3 of the rafts in their sabotage attempt, and the three of them quickly went to work on getting them out of harm's way and into the water. In the midst of all the chaos that was surging on around them, the Square Table Knights got as many people onto the rafts as they could, mostly women and children. Realizing that not much else could be done, the three gentlemen got onto the third raft and began to row along with the others toward the Dorinian shore. Before they got too far along, they saw the captain of the ship calling out to them from the fiery remnants of what had once been a mighty merchant vessel. Cyrus and the others quickly began to turn back in order to save him, but quickly ceased when they say another massive lightning bolt strike the ship and blow it into a million pieces. In the blink of an eye, it had all come to an end.

"May God bless the souls of those we could not help. Especially the captain, who gave his life for a quest he knew nothing about. For their sakes, the Knights of the Square Table must not fail!"

"Don't worry, Cyrus. We'll make Magus pay for this and all the other sins he has committed. We shall make sure he receives the sharp and bloody end of our righteous judgment. Right, Ogre?"

"Hell yeah, Glenn! Besides, those damn mystics destroyed all the beer and ruined everyone's good time! For that alone they will suffer my wrath!"

As his companions seethed with righteous anger and sorrow, Cyrus shed a painful tear as the last of the fiery sparks were put out by the silent waves. _May their souls rest in peace, and may our mission to Dorino meet with success. Oh God, when will the killing stop? When will the sacrifices of innocents no longer be needed? When will we have real peace?_

**********

It was this same darkness that greeted JayTee and Toma as they emerged from the underground passageway to find themselves in front of Zenan Bridge. After some quick thought, JayTee realized that this was how Glancor and his troops would meet with Magus's Army after they had taken the bridge. Using a bit of fire powder that Toma had in his sack, JayTee was able to cause an avalanche within the passage, sealing it and preventing it from ever being used again. With that out of his mind, JayTee used a bit more of the powder to start a camp fire. It had been a long day and they could both use the rest. Before taking the first watch, JayTee vaguely heard Toma talking to himself.

"What are you going on about now, Toma?"

"Well.....I was just wondering if this Lovia chick is really worth all of this trouble. I mean, just look at how many of your men died so that we could come this far. Do you really believe that one woman is worth all that blood and pain?"

"To be honest, Toma.......no, I don't. However, it would be completely heartless of me to give up the quest just because of all the pain we have endured. My men would have wanted us to find this storehouse of Zeal, and that is exactly what we are going to do. If this woman can help us get there, then so be it. If not, we'll look elsewhere until we find someone who can. Either way, I will not turn back now. Will you?"

"Nope. Although I must admit I have my reservations about all of this, I am an adventurer and I cannot turn my back on a good adventure. Besides, I could make a lot of money with the stuff I find in that place."

"You and me both, Toma, you and me both. Now get some rest. We leave for Dorino at dawn. I'll wake you when it's time for your watch."

As Toma Levine drifted off into a quiet sleep, JayTee couldn't help but wonder just what exactly he had gotten himself into this time.

****

Chapter 6

It took most of the night for the three rafts to make it to the shore, even with the men rowing as hard as they could. However, most of the people were just glad to be alive, and they had their mysterious traveling companions to thank for that. After several rounds of heartfelt thanks, the knights said their goodbyes and headed for Dorino, knowing that their journey was not yet at an end. As they took a left turn at a fork in the road, Ogre suddenly came to a stop, a troubled look on his face.

"Hey, Ogre! What's with the long face?"

"Well, Glenn......it's just that this whole adventure has me a little worried. What if this woman can't help us? What if this whole trip is just a waste of time? Those people on the barge......those soldiers who have died so that we might breathe in fresh air today.....their lives would have been sacrificed in vain! Tell me, Glenn......doesn't this also bug you as well?"

"Indeed it does, Ogre. However, it does us little good to think negatively. We must believe that some good will come from all of this. Otherwise, all will be lost."

"You couldn't be more right, Glenn. We owe Guardia our highest hopes and our solemn devotion. To give any less would be treason. Now.....can we get moving again? We don't have time to waste."

"Yes, sir!"

And so, with a renewed sense of duty, the two knights of the kingdom and the lone squire continued on their way to meet their destiny.

**********

The destiny of another was also being decided with the rising of the sun at that instant, although the sun's brilliant rays were not foolish enough to herald the coming of a new day to this particular region of the world. Inside this atmosphere of darkness, within chambers as cold as the polar ice caps, a single robed figure was squatted upon the gothic floor, chanting and meditating in tongues so ancient that most people had no idea they had ever existed. _Only fools have no respect for the past......and soon enough, this world will learn the price for the lack of such respect._

Suddenly, the stillness in the room was disturbed as another robed figure materialized within the environs. Magus did not need to break his ritual in order to discover the identity of this intruder, since the trance enhanced both his senses and his magical abilities. The robed figure was none other than Omicron, the chief representative of all mystics on earth, and Magus knew that he would not be intruding on him unless it was absolutely necessary. Without so much as a glance, Magus gestured for Omicron to proceed.

"Lord Magus, we have received an urgent report from the training camp in the Truce Badlands. It would appear that General Glancor has been killed. His hench soldiers are questioning whether the plan should continue or not."

"Ha ha ha......and why shouldn't it continue? Glancor was not an essential component to the success of this campaign. Besides, the general had informed me that the troops had completed their training and were ready for deployment. In effect, the general's own words had marked him for termination. The fact that someone else beat me to it does not affect me in the least.....that arrogant scum bag had it coming to him. Is there anything else, Omicron? As you can see, I am rather busy here."

"Well......now that you mention it, sire, I did receive a report from that group of mystics we sent to deal with the Square Table Knights."

"And....?"

"And although they initially reported success, it turns out that the knights somehow survived."

"I'm not surprised by that bit of news. The kingdom knights have an amazing survivability factor. Those fools should have known that a simple incantation would have been insufficient...but what could I have expected from creatures who barely understand the basics behind the magic? Hmmm....I suppose that it is up to me to once again accomplish the ridiculously simple. Have my generals meet me in the war room in nine hours with plans for a very special raid. Tell me, what was their last known position?"

"According to the report, they were last seen near the town of Dorino."

"Dorino? Are you sure?"

"Completely, sir."

"This bit of news is disturbing.......I must ask you to leave me now. I have much to think about."

"As you wish, Lord Magus."

As Omicron's departure returned the room to its previous state of demonic stillness, Magus temporarily awoke from his trance to ponder this turn of events. _If the knights were headed toward Dorino, it could only mean one thing: King Guardia knew of Lovia and the knowledge she possessed. He could not allow such knowledge of ancient power to fall into the hands of the enemy. Those knights must be prevented from discovering the location of the storehouse at all costs._ With this resolve, Magus returned to his meditative state, building up his energy reserves for the coming ordeal.

**********

Having crossed Zenan Bridge under the radiance of a rising sun, both JayTee and Toma believed that things were looking up. With Dorino only a few hours away, the bad luck genie that seemed to have followed them around for the majority of this journey finally seemed to be letting up his assault. After about five hours of walking, the warrior and the explorer came upon a group of goblins who seemed to be debating over who should receive the king's portion of the deer they had just recently hunted. Never one to turn down an opportunity to play mediator, Toma Levine convinced JayTee to let him sort this whole thing out.

"Hello, gentlemen! Is there anything that the great Toma Levine, explorer extraordinaire, can do for you?"

"We having trouble picking who get big share of meal. Gruff says he earn it because he kill deer. Babu says he earn it because he strongest of group. Me, Tracklar, say I earn big share because I smartest of group."

"Oh? And what makes you think you are smarter than the rest?"

"I only one who can speak in human language. Rest of them cannot."

"Hmmm......I see. Do you mind if I have a look at this deer?"

"Me no mind, but you not try to get some for self, understand?"

"Yeah. I understand. Shall we?"

With a grudging reluctance, the other goblins agreed to let Toma have a look at the catch of the day. Upon first glance, the deer did not appear to be all that extraordinary. However, after some careful inspection of the deer's corpse, Toma noticed some strange purple streaks along the animal's underside. Such markings were only found in Denadoro Mountain Deer, a variety with ten times the strength, speed, agility, and intelligence of normal deer that could only be caught and killed by the most skilled of hunters. Whomever had dealt this creature the deathblow must really know his stuff. Recalling what he knew of this particular animal's biology, Toma was quickly able to identify the area of the creature that had the highest muscle density per cubic centimeter or, in other words, the meatiest area. Taking a final gander at the lifeless shell, Toma Levine faced the group of goblins and began to converse with them, using his hands to point out the remarkable features of the creature's anatomy.

From a distance, JayTee looked on with amazement. The little guy had fantastic people skills, he had to give him that. If JayTee had been in his shoes, he probably would have cleaved the goblins in half and taken the meat for himself. Then again, the times were changing.....and it may well be that, after this war was over, he would have to become a more well-mannered individual. While his thoughts rested on the distant future, JayTee noticed that Toma had finished his business with the green and gray barbarians, coming away with what looked like a mediocre helping of deer meat.

"So....what happened, Toma? Looks to me like you got ripped off."

"Ha ha ha....actually, it is those guys who got ripped off. I convinced them that they all deserved equal portions of the deer because they all contributed to its successful termination. In the sake of fairness, I also convinced them that I would take the least appealing part of the deer so that they could equally feast on the rest."

"Like I said, you got duped."

"Not quite, my friend. You see, this particular deer sacrifices most of its muscle density to achieve optimum performance in all regions except one, which happens to be what I am holding right here in my hand. Although it seems unremarkable, this little piece of meat has the highest muscle density of the entire animal. In other words, it is the goblins who got the raw end of the deal this time."

"I see. So what did those unlucky bastards end up with?"

"Basically.........a sack of fat. I'd suggest we get out of here before they catch on."

"Right you are. After you, Mr. Toma Levine."

And so, with Toma leading the way, the two travelers quickly left the befuddled group of goblins far behind as they made their way toward that glowing tavern in the heart of Dorino.

**********

As the sun set on yet another pleasant and laborious day in the town of Dorino, the Knights of the Square Table and the lone squire entered through the swinging doors of the warmly lit tavern to find it still bustling with many a customer. Whether it was men coming in for a nice mug of Dorinian Ale after a hard day's work or travelers seeking to spread their information of foreign lands for a price, one could find all kinds seated at the stools, tables, and shadowy booths of this bar. However, the kingdom knights were only interested in one particular individual who, it seemed, was the life of the party. The table at which she was seated was surrounded by males and females alike, although the males far outnumbered the females, and they all seemed extremely intent on what she had to say. From where they were standing, it appeared that the young female was involved in some kind of fortune telling, although it was hard to tell due to the large crowd that surrounded her. Making their way to some open stools, Ogre ordered several rounds of the famous ale while Cyrus directed some inquiries about the girl at the bartender.

"So....who's the girl?"

"You mean the one grabbing all the attention? That would be my adopted daughter, Lovia."

"I see," Cyrus said, a relieved smirk on his face. "Would you mind if we talked with her for a bit? We have some questions we would like to ask her about a story we've heard."

"And what makes you think that she has any information that could be of use to you?"

"Well......me and my comrades had heard that she knew quite a lot about the ancients and their secrets. Now, if that's wrong, I guess we should be on our way..."

"Hey! Hold on a minute! If anybody can help you folks, it's my girl. You all wait here and drink your fill. I'll tell her to speak with you when she is finished with the rest."

"Thank you so much for your help Mr......"

"Movious. Aeron Movious."

"Right. Thanks a bunch."

The knights didn't have to wait long. Apparently, one of the customers was displeased with what Lovia had told him and took off in a raging fit fueled by his heavy consumption of spirits. After a few moments of silent meditation, Lovia signaled for the knights to have a seat at the table. Before any of them could even bat an eyelash, she spoke in the most hypnotic tone of voice any of them had ever heard.

"I know you are here searching for the Masamune....and unless you are the chosen wielder of the blade, there is not much I can do for you."

"What the hell do you mean?" asked Glenn in an exasperated tone.

"Exactly what I said. The Masamune is no ordinary weapon, and not just any human can use it appropriately. Only a holy hero who is armed with the medal of truth and who is willing to stand against the darkness can hold its hilt without suffering the wrath of the eternals. Besides, the location of the legendary sword has been lost over the centuries. Without some sort of guide to the storehouse of the ancients, no one will ever succeed in finding it."

"Look.....Lovia, the king is desperate. Everyday that goes by, more and more innocent people die. The kingdom of Guardia needs something to turn the tide, and this sword is that something. Isn't there anything you can do to help us?"

With a strange sense of wonderment in her eyes, Lovia looked at Cyrus a long time before responding. "Great things I see in your future. You have the potential to become the greatest of heroes, but you do not yet have the means to make use of this potential. I am sorry, but there is little else I can do for you. You had best leave now."

Feeling the weight of having failed their people, the group got up from the worn down table and began to head toward the entrance when a strange sound caught everyone's attention. It was faint at first, growing stronger in intensity as the seconds passed. Suddenly, Cyrus and the others rushed out the tavern doors and looked toward the direction of the sound.....and were horrified to see a massive band of special hench raiders headed toward the town, headed by the most cunning of Ozzie's generals....and all under the command of Lord Magus himself.

"This is not good. This is definitely not good."

**********

JayTee and Toma were equally horrified by the sight of raiders approaching from the outskirts of Dorino and quickly headed toward the tavern to make sure that Lovia had not been harmed. As they approached, they could see three oddly clad strangers hurrying people out of the bar and urging them to head to their homes. JayTee decided he had better ask them about Lovia before all hell broke loose.

"Excuse me, gentlemen, but would any of you know if Lovia is still inside?"

"Yeah, she's still in there, helping her old man to prepare the tavern for the raider attack."

"Well.....in that case..."

Quickly pushing past the others, JayTee and Toma headed into the tavern and quickly spotted Lovia gathering her ancient texts and manuscripts. Through some kind of uncanny perception, Lovia was able to sense JayTee nearby and turned around to face him. After a few moments of silence, Lovia ran over and embraced JayTee in a hug that nearly defied all imagination.

"JayTee! Oh, I'm so happy to see you!"

"Yeah.....I'm happy to see you too, Spooks."

"No one's called me that in a long time. How long has it been.....10 years since we last spoke?"

"That sounds about right. Man, it's so good to see you again. Too bad we don't have the time for small talk. We have to make sure we get your mom and dad to a safe place, and then I'd like you to come with us. We came to you hoping that you could help us decipher a kind of puzzle."

"Hmm....strange. You come to me seeking the way to the same treasure that those gentlemen by the door were looking for. But unless you have a guide, old friend, I can help you no more than I could help them."

"Not to worry, sweet cheeks. I think I have just the thing. But our concern now should be in getting the hell out of here. By the way, who exactly are those travelers?"

"Two are Knights of the Square Table, one is a squire. Why do you ask?"

"No reason, although I guessed as much. Well, I guess we better get moving. Grab your dad and we'll be-"

The rest of his sentence was cut off by the force of several explosions that rocked the very foundations of the town. At that instant, the situation became far more desperate.

"They're using fire bombs already? This is definitely not your average raid. They must really want something in this place dead. And I'm betting that would be you three boy scouts?"

Upon hearing this, Ogre let out a hearty laugh. "Yeah, that would be us. Magus would like nothing better than to see all the knights of the kingdom either enslaved or dead...preferably dead. But he's sure pulling out all the stops with this little show."

"Mr. Movious, I recommend you return immediately to your wife and protect her. This could get ugly. And don't worry about your girl.....you know she'll be safe with me."

"I know that, JayTee. Just...be careful, ok?"

"Gotcha. Now take off. We have no way of knowing when the fire bombings will resume, or how close they will come to the town. And the raiders are bound to come plowing through any minute."

"Ok. Take care, sweetie. I'll see you again real soon."

"Bye, daddy!"

After an emotional hug followed by a few tears, Movious left the tavern and ran all the way to his house, just like all the rest of the townspeople were doing. As he vanished from sight, JayTee turned to the knights with a raised eyebrow and a crooked smile.

"So.....I guess you guys are with us now?"

"We made a promise to our king that we would bring back hope and victory, and I, Sir Cyrus, do not intend to go back empty handed, and neither will my friends. Now, if you have something that will help us accomplish this mission, then you are also our friend. Therefore, I guess the question is not whether we are going or not, but what it is that you have to offer us."

"If you want it, and even if you don't, I've got a map. But this isn't the time or the place to show it to you. We had all better get out of this town before this raid gets fully underway."

Unified in a common goal, the group of six moved out from the tavern under the cover of darkness as a second wave of fire bombings began in earnest.

**********

Magus had an evil grin on his face as he saw the townspeople fleeing before the attack had even begun. The scouts who had gone on ahead had reported that the desired targets were indeed in the town, but that it appeared they might make a run for it with the girl very soon. He could not allow that to happen. Looking over at his generals, Magus gave the silent signal to begin the attack in earnest.

The first phase of the attack involved a high precision strike using fire bombs by means of the lever launchers, and the targets of these bombs would be the civilians' homes. This would, of course, lead to an increase in fear and confusion among the people, preventing them from mounting any kind of counteroffensive. As soon as the signal was given, hundreds of fire bombs descended on the town, hitting and destroying many homes and leaving nothing but smoldering ashes and charred corpses behind. After a few rounds of this bombing, the catapults were silenced and the signal was given to begin phase two.

Phase two was the messiest because, unlike the other phases of the raid, it involved physical contact with the environment under attack, something Magus found excessively wasteful and boring. In the end, phase two's objective was to further solidify the fear and confusion instilled in phase one as well as to strip the target of all its valuables and resources. Since this was primarily a traveler's town, there were not many things to gather during this pillaging stage that would raise any eyebrows on the black market, but then again Magus was not particularly interested in material possessions. The raiders were swift, going from house to house, tearing apart and rendering asunder anything that remotely irked them. in their pursuit of loot to pilfer. With their jobs at an end, the raiders were about to return to the outskirts to make way for phase three when they were suddenly engaged by a group that had apparently been hiding in some overturned barrels in an alley. The ambush was swift, but not swift enough to keep some of the raiders from calling for reinforcements.

Wiping his soiled blade on the dead carcass of a class 2 goblin infantryman, Cyrus knew that they would not be able to hold off wave after wave of reinforcements forever. They needed to make a quick exit from this dismal scene....and fast. Toma and Glenn were working toward that end by examining routes into and out of town as they were marked on one of Toma's many beat up travel maps. Meanwhile, Jaytee protected Lovia with the aid of his battleaxe and throwing knives, making quick work of any and all threats to the lovely woman's safety. Cyrus and Ogre had been doing a great job of providing overall defense and offense, but that would not last for long once the wave of reinforcements hit. Suddenly, as if by means of a miracle, Toma and Glenn discovered an ancient tunnel system that ran deep under the city, stretching out for miles in all directions. The only way to access this system, however, was through a hatch in the floor of the tavern, and getting back there would mean rushing head long into the oncoming enemy forces. Nevertheless, anything was better than staying here and dying or being captured and tortured by that louse, Magus. Thus, after a few minutes of planning, the heroes made their move toward the tavern as the reinforcement raiders came rushing at them.

"I hope you all like to eat dreamstone, you worthless sacks of crap!" said JayTee as he decapitated two henches with one swing of his battleaxe.

"This one's for the king!" cried Cyrus, his blade effortlessly gutting three imp patrolmen and injuring several more.

"Taste the wrath of a drunken master, you sons of bitches!" Ogre slurred as his drunken reflexes managed to take down a few mercenaries who had been trying to sneak away.

After several more moments of slashing and gutting, a temporary gap appeared in the enemy ranks. "Quickly!" yelled Glenn with exasperation. "Get to the tavern while we still have a chance!" Wasting little time, they quickly made their way toward their goal, hoping that lady luck would be on their side tonight.

**********

Lord Magus did not like the way things were proceeding, and his dislike of the situation only grew as he saw them all heading for the tavern through a gap in his forces. _That's it. The time for playing games is over. I'm going to finish this the right way. My way._

"Generals! Call off your men! I shall handle this mess."

While the generals relayed his commands, Magus slipped into a mystical trance and began chanting in the ancient tongues, powering himself for the execution of what would be the final phase of this raid: extermination.

**********

Cyrus and Ogre managed to make it inside the tavern first, followed shortly by Toma and Glenn. JayTee and Lovia had almost made it inside when he saw Magus out of the corner of his eye, preparing himself for some kind of incantation. However, as he saw the remainder of the raiders being called off, JayTee had a sudden flashback to his childhood: a raid similar to this one, he and his family trying to escape, a young Magus in a strange trance.....and then death, pain, and chaos followed by utter silence. He could not allow such a thing to happen here, as well. Aiming the last of his dreamstone daggers at Magus, JayTee could not help but think that his family would enjoy this a great deal. _Burn in hell, Magus._ As he pushed Lovia into the tavern, he let the dagger go, praying to the heavens that it would find its mark.

**********

And it would have, too, had not Magus's uncanny mystical senses appraised him of the danger with enough time to take some action. As the dagger buried itself deep into Magus's upper chest right above his blackened heart and caused him to collapse to the ground, he was able to cast a partial spell directed at the last thing his eyes focused on before he lost consciousness. As he slipped further and further into the darkness, Magus could hear the frantic voices of his spineless generals calling for a quick retreat. _They're fools......utter fools.......all of them........_

**********

Toma had been able to quickly find the hatch that lead toward the system of tunnels after tearing up some false flooring. One by one, the members of this unlikely group descended into the darkness of the tunnels, JayTee opting to be last so he could keep a lookout for any trouble. As he, too, made his way down toward the others and closed the hatch behind him, a fiery ball of energy exploded from the sky and crashed into one of the remaining abodes, the strength of the shockwave alone enough to make JayTee tumble the rest of the way down. It was not until he regained his composure that he realized whose house that had been: Lovia's parents' house. Once again, he had been unable to protect those whom he loved and cared for. _Magus.....you'd better pray that knife killed you. Because the pain of that dagger piercing your heart will be nothing compared to the pain I will inflict upon you if I catch you alive._ And as he lay in the unwavering darkness of the underground passageways, he could not help but feel that he would indeed get that chance.

****

Chapter 7

King Guardia was not accustomed to being awakened late in the night, so he was highly shocked to see Chancellor Smith in his royal chambers attempting to tell him about some urgent business that needed his immediate attention. Putting on one of his many hand-embroidered robes, the king followed the chancellor to the briefing room, where he found two scouts and Knight Captain Morigan awaiting his arrival. As soon as the royal pleasantries were dispensed with, the king motioned for the knight captain to begin.

"I am so sorry to have awakened his majesty and you, Chancellor Smith, at such a late hour, but this matter simply could not wait for the morrow."

"Get on with it, then!"

"Yes, sir. First off, you must know of an attack on Dorino that occurred earlier this evening."

"What's so important about that? We all know that Dorino has been the subject of many a raid over the past several months. Why should this particular raid be anything special?"

"Because, your majesty, it appears that the raid in this case was far more aggressive than those in the past. According to these scouts, nearly 3/4 of the houses in the town have been reduced to ashes, and half the town's population has been wiped out."

"My God. Hmmm......Dorino.....wasn't that the destination of Sir Cyrus and his group?"

"Yes, it was."

"Have you any information on whether they survived the attack or not?"

The knight captain took a deep breath before answering, his sour expression saying more than words ever could. "Unfortunately not, sir. The scouts were only able to confirm that they did arrive in Dorino safely and that they were still there when the raid began. We have been encouraging the local coroners to speed up the identification of the corpses, but they can only work so fast. I'm deeply sorry, your majesty."

At that moment, the king seemed to age by a thousand years. "It's quite all right, Morigan. This war has brought us nothing but misery and death. I just hope to God that they are all right. Any other news to report?"

"Yes, sire. According some of our best spies, it would appear that Ozzie is about to be deposed as the head of all mystics.....and replaced by Magus."

Even the king could not hide the shock he felt at that moment. There had been speculation that Magus might try something in the future, but the fact that the move was coming sooner than expected was truly troubling indeed. The thought of the entire mystic army under Magus's control was too horrifying to contemplate. However, there was little if anything the kingdom could do about it, considering that the interference of humans in mystic affairs was strictly forbidden. Besides, the king figured, that green sack of lard probably had it coming to him.

"Yes.....I suppose we should be keeping an eyen on that, as well. But for right now, I want you guys to focus your efforts on finding our guys and helping the people of Dorino to rebuild. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sir!"

"Well, I believe that takes care of business. Dismissed."

As everybody filed out of the briefing room, the king pulled the chancellor off to the side. "The night's not over for you yet, Smith. There is something very special we need to discuss."

**********

They had been running for what seemed like an eternity, even though the darkness made that harder than it should have been. Add that to the fact that both Cyrus and JayTee had suffered some serious injuries during the raid that needed immediate treatment, and it became even more urgent for them to find their way to the surface. In fact, the only reason that they had any idea of where they were going was because Lovia had been using her supernatural abilities to guide them. However, faith in things unseen can only carry some individuals so far, and both Toma and Glenn were starting to doubt this witch's "abilities." Suddenly, just as they were about to voice their protests, Lovia brought their exodus to a halt.

"It's here."

"It's here? What's here?"

"The way to the surface. I know you all can't see it, but it's there. It appears there is a ladder leading up to a metallic hatch of some kind. I'll go on ahead and see if I can open it. You all had better stay here."

As Lovia began her ascent, Toma turned to JayTee with a questioning glance. "Are you sure we can trust this female friend of yours with our safety? I mean, she is kind of a quack and-"

"You say another word about Lovia and I'll have you eating whatever it is that this floor is made out of."

"Hey, man! Chill! I was just voicing my opinion, is all. Nothing personal. By the way, if this really is the way out, where do you think we'll end up?"

"Hmmm....well, being that we've been headed in a southeasterly direction ever since we fled from Dorino, I have a feeling that we'll end up on the outskirts of Porre. Close to the shipyards, if we're lucky."

For a long time after this exchange, there was nothing but silence. Then, out of the blue, a solitary beam of light sliced through the darkness, followed by another beam and another until the portion of the passageway the group inhabited was completely liberated from the dictatorial shadows that had blinded them for so long. Looking up, they could see an obviously joyful Lovia motioning for them to climb up the ladder to the circular opening so that they may join her. One by one, they all climbed up, Cyrus and JayTee being aided by Toma and Glenn with Ogre not too far behind. Once they had all made their way to the surface, they could see why Lovia had been so cheerful: they were right smack in the middle of Porre....and were quickly attracting a great deal of attention from the townspeople.

"Well," JayTee admitted with a smile, "this turned out a lot better than I could have hoped. We're not only really close to both the local inn and the shipyards, but we're all alive and far away from Magus and his goons. I just couldn't be happier."

Deciding it might not be such a good idea to stay out in the streets, Cyrus went into the local inn and rented two rooms, paying for them with some gold the king had allocated for his journey. Once they were all settled, Lovia began to treat the wounds of the two warriors while Ogre, Toma, and Glenn went to the local tavern to fetch some drinks. After a couple of drinks and a bit of rest, Toma reminded JayTee about the map he had risked his life to get. Looking through his sack, he was finally able to find it and roll it out on the barren wooden floor of the room. After checking to see if the map had been damaged, JayTee gestured for Lovia to come and take a look at it. Taking a few minutes to glance at the entire map, Lovia meditated briefly before speaking.

"This map is definitely written in the ancient tongue of Zeal, albeit a very strange dialect of it. Hmmm.....yup, there is no mistaking it. This map definitely leads to the ancient storehouse. However, the storehouse is located on an island south of Avon, so we will definitely need some amphibious transportation of some kind, preferably a craft only big enough for us and capable of maneuverability and speed."

"I see. So...do any of you know where we can get a craft of that type around here?"

"I think I might," Cyrus said without a hint of uncertainty, "but it might take me awhile. When do you all wish to set sail?"

"The sooner, the better. Even if we have a head start on Ozzie and his mystic friends, I wouldn't like to give them the time to catch up."

"Not a problem. I'll get started on that first thing tomorrow. However, in the interests of our health and sanity, I say we get some rest. Anyone disagree?"

No one did, the outcome of recent events finally sinking in and taking their toll. Therefore, without much thought, the four guys fell asleep where they were while Lovia headed to her own room. Finding the storehouse and being reunited with her friend JayTee were the best things that had happened to her in ages. In fact, as she finally gave in to the enchantments of the sand man, she secretly wondered if JayTee still found this "Spook" as attractive as he had ten years ago.

**********

In the dark recesses of Magus's Castle, things were not nearly as tranquil as Magus lay on a cold slab of stone surrounded by mystics desperately trying to help their leader recover from his nearly mortal blow. Hours had been spent digging through tons of ancient scrolls and texts, looking for incantations and spells that invoked healing and recovery. Some, fearing the worst, even dug up spells of resurrection to snatch their leader from the hands of the reaper. Hundreds of mystics, including Omicron himself, found themselves in a worshipful stance while chanting various incantations in several dialects of the ancient language of magic. However, it was clear to all present that the incantations seemed to be having no effect, the dark red blood seeping from the open wound the only sign that his heart was still beating.

If they had focused their efforts on communicating with Magus instead of trying to heal him, they would have realized that Magus did not wish himself to be healed right at this moment for the simple reason that he had other things to worry about. When he was wounded, Magus took the opportunity to put himself into an out-of-body trance, allowing him to follow his fleeing foes in spirit while keeping his body at the border of life and death. Although Lovia had extraordinary magical abilities, there was no way she could know that he was following them. After they arrived in Porre, he felt himself slipping away, but it was all worth it to see the map and to learn the location of the storehouse which contained the Celestial Book of Magic. Once he'd seen what he needed to see, he removed the trance and returned to his own body, deactivating the magical field which had prevented the mystics' spells from working on him to begin with. With this done, Magus relaxed as he let the healing invoked by the spells take its effect, watching as his open wound slowly sealed itself.

Needless to say the mystics were relieved to see their leader rise from the stone slab, although they were a bit taken aback by his sudden fit of maniacal laughter. Of all those present, only Omicron dared to approach the revitalized sorcerer.

"It pleases all of us to see you faring so well, sire. May I ask why you are laughing in such a fashion?"

"I laugh because I am happy, you twit! After years of searching, the book of ancient magic is finally within my reach!"

"Lord Magus, if I may say so, you should not be worrying yourself over such matters. You need to rest and regain your strength-"

"Silence! I am perfectly fine. Don't you understand? This is the moment of our final victory! Prepare one of the demon class barges for immediate departure!"

"But sire, it will be several days before a ship of that size can get here from our naval yards in Krakmar, even at top speed."

"Fine. Send one of your mystics there immediately! We simply must get to the storehouse before they do."

"They, sir?

"Never mind. To all of you, I say this: prepare yourselves! Through meditation, incantation, or whatever other means you see fit. The day of Lavos will soon be upon us....and this pathetic little sphere will be ours to plunge into eternal darkness!"

As the mystics acknowledged this news with an ancient chant, Magus stumbled up the many flights of stairs until he reached his private shrine, requesting that no one disturb him until the ship came. There was much to prepare for, and this time he would not be denied victory. _This time, Lavos, there will be no escape for you. Prepare to meet the reaper._

****

Chapter 8 

Several days had passes since the group of unlikely heroes had arrived in Dorino, and Cyrus had not yet been able to find a ship suitable enough for their needs. He had talked with every single captain currently in the town and had strained every last one of his contacts in the area, but so far it seemed that the cards were stacked up severely against him. As he was about to head for the inn after another day of bitter disappointment, a man with a dirty complexion and torn rags approached him, grinning in a way that allowed all of his golden teeth to catch the rays of the setting sun.

"Why hello there, stranger."

"Hello, sir."

"Nice day out, isn't it?"

"I suppose it is. Now, if you'll excuse me-"

"Don't be rushing off so soon, cowboy! At least, not before you hear what I have to offer."

Cyrus thought about it for a moment, then decided he really had nothing better to do. "All right, then, I'll listen. But make it quick."

"No problem. Hmmm.....perhaps this place is a bit too public. Would you care to join me at the tavern for a drink? It's on me."

_Ha! I'm surprised this man can even afford his own teeth, let alone a drink._ "Ok, but no tricks."

"No tricks," the dreadful looking man affirmed with another showing of his golden teeth. "On that, you have my solemn word."

Once inside the tavern, the shady individual lead Cyrus toward a dark corner which consisted of a lone table and two rickety chairs. Surprisingly enough, there were mugs of ale already waiting for them, as well. After a few minutes of uncomfortable silence, Cyrus motioned for the rugged man to begin his discourse.

"I heard from a very reliable source that you and a few of your comrades are looking for a ship to charter. Am I correct so far?"

"Yes, you are. Go on."

"Well, it just so happens that I own a vessel you might like. Her name's _The Alexandria_, and I can attest that there isn't another ship like her in all the known world."

"You sure talk big, for a homeless bum. Why should I believe anything you say?"

"Because, my dear friend, I happen to be far more than just your average street bum, and I can't elaborate any further than that for your own sake. The boat's on the eastern side of the shipyards, if you want it. Oh, and don't worry about payment. I've already been paid in ways you couldn't possibly understand. Good day to you, Cyrus. Give my regards to Lovia when you see her."

Flabbergasted at all the things the stranger had said, Cyrus was nearly made speechless. However, he still had enough sense to ask the obvious question. "And who should I tell her is sending this out-of-the-blue greeting?"

"Tell her it's Crimson Slash. She'll understand, even if you don't. Good evening, sir knight. We'll see each other again, I'm sure."

As the rugged individual stood up and left the tavern, Cyrus took a few moments to recompose himself, after which he decided to follow his benevolent benefactor. However, there were many such individuals on the streets of any given town at this time of night, and Porre was no exception. Finally realizing that he would never succeed in his search for Crimson Slash, Sir Cyrus headed back toward the inn, not looking forward to explaining all this to the others.

**********

Well outside of the town limits, Crimson Slash was watching Sir Cyrus through an optical device which enhanced the natural range of human vision. Once he saw that Cyrus was heading back toward the inn, he put away the optical device and began to remove his authentic disguise, beginning with the phony set of gold teeth. After he had cleaned himself up and donned his true apparel, Mr. Slash activated another mysterious device, which was shaped and colored like a chicken's egg. The device beeped and flashed for a few moments, after which a spherical temporal field enveloped him and whisked him back to the legendary land of magic.

**********

The explanation had taken Cyrus well into the night, leaving him tired and frustrated. JayTee guessed the guy must have been a wacko, and Lovia seemed to have no knowledge of anyone named Crimson Slash. However, due to their common interest to get to the storehouse ahead of Magus, they all decided to go to the shipyards and check up on this supposed ship. The night was peaceful enough, and sleep soon descended upon the six of them.

Well, five of them, at least. Lovia just could not force herself to sleep after hearing that name from so long ago. The fact that Crimson Slash, a captain in the Trigger Guard, had been able to trace her to this exact location meant that events crucial to the future of Earth were about to transpire. However, this was not what worried her, but the fear that a member of the Temporal Assassin's Guild, a rogue faction of the Guard devoted to causing chaos in time, would somehow manage to make things difficult for her and her friends. _All this trouble....just because I survived. Why did you let me survive, Zendor? What is so special about me?_ As these thoughts passed rapidly through her mind, she heard a knock at the door.

"Come in," Lovia said in a rather reluctant voice.

"Sorry for coming in here like this," JayTee announced, "but I couldn't sleep."

"That's funny....neither could I."

After a half-hearted laugh, JayTee looked at Lovia in a stern fashion. "You lied about that guy, didn't you Spooks."

Lovia lowered her head, the beautiful golden-bluish strands of her hair falling down and hiding her countenance. "Yes, JayTee, I did. But not for the reasons you think. There are some things in my past....things I could have told my parents but chose not to because there was no way they could ever understand. I used to be an entirely different person, JayTee, and I lived an entirely different life. Even if I told you everything, you would still be incapable of grasping it all."

"I get it....you're saying you don't trust me."

"This goes beyond trust! I just wish you could understand that."

"Well, forgive me for being human. Good night!"

JayTee turned around and was about to head back to the other room when he heard the sound of crying coming from Lovia's direction. Looking back, he could see a flowing stream of tears gently rolling down those peach colored cheeks he had grown love so much. There she was, gentle and soft on a bed that was not her own, miles away from her home....not knowing that she no longer had a home to go back to. Carefully seating himself beside her, he carefully wiped away the tears from her eyes and held her closely in a warm embrace.

"I'm sorry, Spooks. I didn't mean it, and I think you know that. It's just that....well, I worry about you. I always have and I always will. We are friends, aren't we?"

"Yeah," Lovia said, her tears giving way to smile of jubilation. "Maybe even more than that."

Before JayTee could react to that remark, Lovia sealed her ruby red lips over his while slowly removing the top half of his battered mercenary suit. Her nimble fingers gingerly glided over his muscular arms and then lightly touched upon his rippling chest, which was accented by a rather large scar that stretched diagonally across most of it. JayTee, finally giving in to the feelings he had been harboring towards Lovia, gently removed her satin robes, his rugged hands groping and massaging her voluptuous breasts. His rhythmic breathing matched her own as their bodies intertwined, fusing under the fires of love that suddenly filled the small room. From head to foot, each of them became a part of the other, each grope, kiss, and moan leading up to the climax of the night's passion. Skillfully, he guided her toward his love muscle, every thrust filled with the primal lust of a beast untamed, her buttocks and breasts jiggling as waves of raw power flowed through her being. Finally, as the speed of the thrusts and jiggles reached its maximum, the state of orgasmic pleasure was reached, screams and gasps followed by the whispering of sweet nothings as both took refuge in each other's arms.

However, as both drifted off into a pleasurable sleep, the final act of this joyous evening had not yet been completed. As Lovia dreamed of things unseen, a miracle was occurring within her. Through processes of science unknown at this point in history and the actions of an invisible and omnipotent hand, the soul of a new human being moved into the lone fertilized egg and began the chain of events that, within nine months' time, would result in a very special birth. On this night, the one with the power to change time itself was conceived.

**********

It had been days since Magus had entered his personal shrine, and it was not an easy thing for Admiral Upsilon to knock on a grandiose, dark obsidian door that had been sealed by the most powerful sorcerer in the modern world. Yet it still amazed him that the door opened at all, and that Lord Magus himself, garbed in his jet blue robes, came out to meet him.

"Greetings, Lord Magus. I assume you know why I am here?"

"Yes. Where exactly is this ship? Omicron was a bit liberal in that aspect of his report."

"Well, there was a good reason for that. I didn't want there to be any possibility of an unknown traitor or enemy infiltrator sabotaging the ship. _The Apocalypse_ is ready to set sail at the Bone Shipyards whenever your excellency wishes to depart."

"We leave within the hour," Magus said without even giving the admiral as much as a glance. "The more time we waste around here, the better the chances are that Cyrus and his putrid traveling companions will beat me to the storehouse. That must not be allowed to happen. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some final things to take care of."

"Yes, sir. I'll make sure the ship is ready to depart when you arrive."

As Admiral Upsilon turned left down an eerily lit passageway, Magus descended several flights of stairs until he was standing in front of the war room, where he expected to see representatives of every race of the Mystic Alliance as per his request. Before opening the double doors, Omicron sent him a brief telepathic message: _Most of the races present will support you in the takeover, and those who don't can be easily persuaded otherwise._ With this in mind, Magus entered the heavily guarded room and prepared to announce that, as of today, he would be replacing Ozzie as king of the Mystic Alliance.

**********

The Porre Shipyards looked glorious in the glowing light of the rising sun, even if Cyrus and his not-really-awake comrades did not. While Ogre was guzzling down yet another mug of the Renegade's Brew JayTee had introduced to him earlier that morning, the others were busy looking over the craft that the stranger from the previous night had left them, and they had to admit that all of what he had told Cyrus turned out to be true. _The Alexandria_ was slender and sturdy, constructed of a dreamstone-iron alloy and equipped with self-repairing sails and a rather large supply of the legendary Dragon Powder bombs. It also had comfortable living quarters and several levers and switches that none of them knew how to operate. In the final analysis, it appeared that this ship was indeed suited for their needs, but the only way to be completely sure was to test it over the open sea.

Toma, having traveled to many lands on quite a few ships, busied himself with all of the preliminary tasks that have to be completed before any naval vessel can leave the dock, employing the aid of Cyrus and JayTee for some of the more physical tasks. After making sure all was in order, Cyrus presented Captain Jack Harrison, the man he had chartered to lead this naval voyage at about the same time he had been looking for a worthy ship. After dispensing with the pleasantries, the rugged native of an island called Malta quickly toured the ship and, satisfied with what he saw, told his passengers that he was ready to set sail. As _The Alexandria_ moved out upon the waters of the Earthbound Sea, JayTee held Lovia in his arms, fearing that their greatest trial was yet ahead of them.

Standing at the other end of the dock, the same Guru who had been watching Lovia all those days ago was gazing happily at the receding ship the Trigger Guard had provided for them. _The path has been set for you, my friends. It is time to meet your destiny....for the sake of all the world._ Once the craft had fully sunk beneath the horizon, the ancient Guru used a long lost spatial manipulation technique to transport himself to P'letgo-0, also known as the ancient storehouse of Zeal. And in the distance, a temporal assassin had watched the whole thing, using a makeshift handheld device to trace the distortion waves through multi-dimensional space to their final location. After verifying the results, the cloaked individual used another handheld device to send a very quick message through the corridors of time: "Targets acquired. Awaiting her majesty's orders." The answer came quickly enough: "Eliminate them all."

****

Chapter 9 

After only two hours' worth of arguments, objections, and insults, a final outcome had been reached: all of the representatives and their respective races would support Magus unquestionably, each getting some concession or other in return. Leaving Omicron to iron out the details, Magus teleported himself to the Bone Shipyards where _The Apocalypse_ was indeed ready to depart. Admiral Upsilon gave him a brief tour of the skeletal infrastructure, which was composed entirely of human skeletons and iron compounds just like any other ship in the fleet, and then proceeded to show Magus the command chamber where he expected him to preside over the crew. However, Magus was not one to exaggerate his oceanic abilities (he had never paid much attention to the naval advisor's lessons back when he lived in Zeal), and therefore decided to leave Upsilon in complete control. _After all, if the fool should botch things up, I could always use my powers to arrive at my destination safely. But I'd rather not waste the energy.....something tells me I'm going to need it._

With all the preliminary tasks taken care of, Magus shot a cold glance at the admiral. "We must leave now, admiral. Plot your course and set sail."

"I'm sorry, Lord Magus, but with no wind to power the sails, there really isn't much I can do."

"Don't worry about the wind, admiral. Just get this bucket out into the water in one piece."

"Yes, sir!"

Once the vessel had been moved out upon the open ocean, Magus focused his mind on the world's wind currents, chanting key phrases in the language of magic which would give him complete control over them. After he had these currents in his power, he unleashed them in a controlled fashion upon the sails to give the highest maximum speed in the direction of their destination. Satisfied with his work, Magus turned to the admiral with a slight grin on his face.

"The ship is yours now, Upsilon," Magus said as his flowing cloak disappeared outside the cabin door. "If you need me, I shall be in my quarters meditating."

**********

It would appear that the storehouse had not changed in appearance since he had last been here. The pyramid-like structure had retained both its color and prominence, right down to the hieroglyphics on the walls chiseled in by ancient Egyptian scribes. Carefully translating the hieroglyphs on the main dreamstone door, the Guru pushed the correct sequence of raised pictographs to activate the mechanism which would make the door traversable for a few seconds. Passing through the motion sensors on the floor, the door automatically rematerialized, leaving the lone ancient to navigate down several dusty passageways until he came to a dead end. Scratching his rather long, white beard, the Guru began to look around for the entrance to the main storage facility. _I know it's around here somewhere. If I remember correctly, there used to be switch or a lever that activated the entry sequence. Now....where was it?_ After a few moments of careful and fruitless searching, the old man banged his fist against the east most wall and, to his surprise, the wall gave way to reveal the awe and splendor of Zeal's finest storehouse.

"Hmmm....so that's how it worked," the Guru said as he went inside to prepare for the arrival of his friends. "I suppose my memory's not as good as it used to be."

**********

The Atlantic Ocean could be quite unforgiving sometimes, yet it seemed that, with the aid of Lovia's magic, it was actually cutting down the length of their journey. Of course, the fact that the ship was even more agile while moving on the surface of the water than it looked when it was in the dock helped, too. On top of all that, the weather was just absolutely perfect, perhaps due to Lovia's supernatural influence, and the wind couldn't have been anymore cooperative. Looking out upon the parting waves from the bow of _The Alexandria_, Lovia and JayTee held each other in a loving embrace, the need for words nullified by the synchronous beating of their hearts. Toma Levine, hyped up by the prospect of a new adventure, was busy editing the map that had brought them all this far, adding in additional geographic information so that future generations would be able to appreciate the marvels built by the hands of their ancestors. Glenn and Ogre, not really having anything important to do, found themselves playing a friendly game of Dorinian Poker, which Ogre seemed to be winning at the moment.

Suddenly, the atmosphere of happiness aboard the ship was completely disturbed by an explosion off the starboard bow. The momentary shock that followed was quickly replaced by an outburst from the mouth of Captain Harrison.

"What the hell was that?"

"I'm not quite sure," Cyrus voiced as he returned from practicing his swordsmanship in the lower levels of the ship. "But whatever it was didn't even scratch the hull. Whatever this ship is made of, it can take lots of punishment."

"That may be true, but I'm not highly tempted to find out."

"Nor am I," JayTee declared, his eyes narrowed in a cold anger. "I say we find out who shot at us and shove a couple of Dragon Powder bombs up his or her ass."

"Only one problem with that," Toma said with a sigh. "I didn't see the attacker. Did any of you?"

"As a matter of fact, no," they all admitted grudgingly.

"But that blast had to come for somewhere, and we can be sure that wasn't just a one time thing. I'll bet we can expect another shot any second now, so we'd better-"

Another explosion, this time off the port side, quickly ended all the discussions and forced them all into attack mode. But without a visual reference point, the best they could do was lob bombs in all directions until they made a hit on their invisible attacker. Given the importance of their mission, anything was worth trying once.

**********

A few miles behind them, the temporal assassin was smiling sinisterly as his prey's attacks missed far and wide. _Well, I guess Belthasar's cloaking shield prototype worked out perfectly. Who'd have thought that that crazy old man could do anything right? Even his mounted laser cannon prototype worked better than expected. I guess Queen Zeal's advice to the Guild to steal the designs for all of this stuff really paid off. I'll keep them guessing with a few more arrant shots, then disintegrate them and proceed to the final target so I can get the hell out of this primitive world and back to the comforts of home. Damn barbarians don't even have light bulbs.....light bulbs, for Zeal's sake!_

So, as his pray continued to shoot blindly and run, the pompous hunter merely sat back and watched, enjoying this rather humorous charade for all it was worth.

**********

As bomb after bomb produced no results, Lovia suddenly felt the presence of a cold, dead soul somewhere nearby, invisible to physical eyes made visible by the powers of magic. Focusing a little harder, Lovia discovered the horrifying truth: a temporal assassin was out there. Knowing that not much time remained, she immediately headed to see the captain, hoping that his mind would not be closed to new possibilities.

"Excuse me, Captain Harris, may I have a word with you?"

"This is really not a good time, dear. As you can see, we are all kind of in the middle of something."

"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. Our unseen attacker may have a weakness, and I think I know of a way to expose it."

"Really, lass? Well, don't just stand there wasting time! Spit it out!"

"Before we can physically hurt him, we have to take away his capability to hide like he has been doing. To accomplish this, we'll need to equip some of our bombs with an additional mixture of some food rations as well as the Dragon Powder."

"Oh?" asked the captain skeptically. "And why is that?"

"Well......it has to do with Belthasar's cloaking drive and how it simply cannot filter large chucks of organic matter from its vital ventilation systems, but I really don't have time to explain right now. Will you give my plan a chance?"

After scratching his chin, the captain shrugged. "Why not? At this point, I'd try anything."

"Great! Let's get the others so we can get started."

After a minutes of quick modifications, five bombs had been prepared according to Lovia's information and set with delayed fuses. As they were cast overboard in a pattern she had specifically outlined, JayTee came and stood by her side.

"You sure this is going to work, Spooks?"

"We'll know in a minute," Lovia replied in a rather uncertain tone.

**********

As his scanners picked up the presence of metallic objects in the neighboring water, the assassin could not keep himself from laughing. _Ha ha ha! In their final moments, their desperation has driven them to strike out at me with mere toys! How humorous! But no matter. I believe the time for silly games has now passed. Time for me to finish this._ It took a few seconds to lock on to _The Alexandria_, but once he had he knew there could be no escape. With his attention solely on the final moments of the hunt, the assassin never saw one of the floating bombs detonate just a few meters from the outer edge of the cloaking field, sending sizeable chunks of organic matter right past the craft's sensors and into the ventilation shafts of the cloaking drive, permanently clogging them. Having nowhere to escape, the heat returned to the cloaking shield generator, which summarily overheated and exploded in a brilliant fashion. The ensuing fire spread to the power generator, which subsequently was also destroyed. With all of this having happened in the space of a few moments, the now helpless hunter had no idea what deep trouble he was in as he pulled the laser canon's trigger.

**********

"There he is!" yelled out Glenn as he signaled wildly with his hands. "Let it rip, captain!"

"Right you are, my boy! Here it goes!"

Finally having an enemy to shoot, the captain initiated another volley of Dragon Powder bombs directed this time at their elusive enemy's ship. Dumbfounded at this sudden onset of bad luck, the temporal assassin could do nothing but watch as the bombs landed right on target, exploding and starting fires both on deck and around the hull. Combined with the fires raging bellow, it didn't take long for the unstable generator core to ignite, blowing the entire vessel to smithereens.

After the shockwave had passed and the roaring waves it generated had subsided, the passengers of _The Alexandria_ celebrated their victory with well deserved fervor. In the spirit of their victory, the captain extended a special thanks to Lovia for providing them with the information it had taken to win. Although all of them were interested in how she had known what to do, Lovia attributed it all to one of her feelings. At that remark, the captain let out a hearty laugh.

"Thank the Fates for your feelings, then! You can come to me with those feelings of yours anytime! Now, if you'll excuse me."

While the captain went off to make sure their ship was still on course, JayTee approached Lovia, placing a strong arm around her waist. "You really came through for us, honey. I think I speak for everyone when I say thanks. So....how exactly did you know that packing those things full of organic gunk would give us the upper hand?"

"I told you!" Lovia said in a playfully exasperated tone. "It was just a feeling that turned out to be right, is all."

"I see," JayTee conceded, a mischievous grin spreading across his lightly-tanned face. "Do you have any feelings about me right now?"

"Hmmm....I don't know. I guess we'll have to go to a more quiet place to find out."

"I couldn't agree more," JayTee said as he chased Lovia to his room.

"There they go again," Ogre said as he downed yet another mug of concentrated spirits. "Better cover your ears tonight, Glenn and Cyrus. From the way they were running, I'd say there will definitely be some bed rocking tonight."

"I hear you, man," Glenn said humorously.

"So do I," Cyrus chimed in, rather preoccupied with an entirely different set of thoughts. _What's going to be waiting for us at this storehouse? Is the Masamune even there and, more importantly, is it still in one piece? Will Magus beat us to the prize and forever doom the world to an age of darkness and despair?_ Remembering the vow he had made long ago to protect the king, the queen, and the kingdom they ruled, Cyrus knew that he could not let such a thing happen. With renewed affirmation, Cyrus turned his thoughts back to the merriment of the moment, knowing that it would be the last opportunity they would have for such frolicking before things really got tough.

**********

On the side of the storehouse opposite that which the Zeal Guru had come through, _The Apocalypse_ came aground, Magus leading a team of mystics and other rogues onto the white, sandy beach. Quickly surveying the pyramidal structure to make sure it was the storehouse he had remembered as a boy, Magus proceeded to approach the entrance when he was knocked to the ground by the sudden appearance of a force field around the entire facility. After a few of the others tried getting through and were, too, knocked back, Magus decided to go past the field and into the storehouse with his mind, determined to find out what was causing this unfortunate setback. Within a few seconds of initiating the mental probe, he had his answer.

"You are not going to get in my way this time, Guru," Magus communicated to the ancient man seated in front of the myriad of flashing control panels that ran the automated defense systems for P'letgo-0. "I have come too far and waited too long to be stopped by a bunch of mechanical toys."

"I'm sorry, Janus," the old man replied sternly, "but I will not allow the wonders of Zeal to be the agents of your revenge. Search your heart, Magus.....you know that you cannot do this alone. Wait for the others to arrive, and together perhaps you can-"

"Silence!" Magus commanded. "If you will not allow me to enter, then I will find my own way in."

And with that, Magus ceased his mental survey of the facility. Turning to his party, he gestured for the mystics to join him. "The rest of you can go wait in the boat," he thundered as he turned once again toward the storehouse. "I can disable this shield with the help of these mystics, but it will take some time, so I would appreciate no interruptions. Got it? Good."

****

Chapter 10 

_The Alexandria_ arrived on P'letgo-0 about an hour after Magus did, although they were unaware of that since they didn't come in on the same side. However, Lovia's mystical sense did give her the subtle sensation that something was indeed amiss, so the group made sure to keep its guard up as they approached the entrance to the storehouse. Suddenly, they were all knocked back by the same energy filed which had prevented Magus from entering. Attempting to find some way past it, Lovia scanned the inner sanctum of the facility with her mind, knowing by experience that someone had to be inside running the self-defense mechanisms. Her search, like Magus's, was brief, resulting in the discovery of an old man seated at the main control center. Unlike Magus, however, Lovia was unable to communicate with the familiar figure because he cut off the mind link before she could react. As she attempted to reinitialize the mind scan, the force field suddenly deactivated and the dreamstone door on their side opened. Not being one to question luck, Toma quickly ran inside the pyramidal building, with the others not too far behind. Inside, the storehouse was truly a work of art, decorated with fine jewels of all kinds and shinning with a radiance more blinding than the sun's. Before any of them could truly relish in the moment, a friendly sounding voice echoed throughout the entire facility.

"Listen well, my dear friends, for we haven't much time. Please follow my directions exactly and all your questions will be answered."

"Who in Guardia's name are you?" asked Cyrus in a challenging tone. "Why should we trust you?"

"Well....if you'd rather I be talking to Magus instead of you, that can be arranged soon enough. Whatever your decision, make it quick. I can't keep Magus at bay for much longer."

"Ok," JayTee agreed reluctantly, "we'll go with you. But I swear if this is some kind of trick-"

"Tricks? Ha! I'm too old for tricks, young man. Now, if you'll just follow me."

Step by step, the strange old man's voice guided them through the many halls and passageways of the Zeal storehouse, making sure they avoided all of the traps and false storage facilities. Finally, after what had seemed like an eternity, they wound up at a dead end deep in the heart of the pyramid. While the others called out to the strange voice to tell them what to do from here, Toma was having a blast making sketches and tracings of the various markings and pictograms which decorated the walls and doorways of this building. After several long moments of silence, Ogre decide he had had enough of waiting and, with his signature drunken strength, banged upon one wall after the other, shouting at the top of his lungs profanities he thought would encourage the voice to resurface. All around the area he went, banging and screaming until, by sheer luck, he managed to depress the portion of the eastern wall that activated the entrance mechanism, causing him to fall on his face as the wall receded into the framework. Momentarily distracted by Ogre's antics, the party turned and was astounded by what they beheld. On the other side of the door was a room full to the brim of the most marvelous gadgets and trinkets any of them had ever seen, from particle accelerators to rubies the size of elephants. Even Lovia, who had lived in Zeal for a long time, was not quite able to identify all the items. Cyrus focused immediately on the weapons and armor, carefully appraising them for quality and durability, while Ogre seemed to be quite interested in what appeared to be kegs of beer. Toma busied himself by stashing as many of the ancient manuscripts, maps, and relics as he could into his traveler's bag, knowing that he could make a hefty sum by selling them to interested buyers. JayTee and Glenn spent most of their time looking at the beautiful yet eerie statues of women that adorned most of the environs, paying special attention to the fact that Zeal's artists seemed to think that nudity was something to be treasured and admired, not hidden and spoken of in secret. Lovia, having followed a trail of broken and antiquated machinery, came upon a device that was similar to a church organ in appearance, with several tube-like structures ascending into the ceiling from a glittering control panel. As she approached to get a better look at it, she noticed the same old man she had seen in her mind probe, seated in a conical chair as he pounded away at the keys in front of him. On a display just above him, Lovia could see Magus and a few mystics chanting in the ancient tongue, apparently in an attempt to disable the force field. Focusing again on the old man, she suddenly realized that there was something oddly familiar about him, from his long beard to his reddish-brown garment. Somehow picking up on her sensations, the old man swiveled his chair to face her and, amazingly enough, smiled.

"You really haven't changed at all. That Belthasar is a true genius. I must remember to congratulate him the next time I see him."

"Who are you?" Lovia queried, her feelings telling her that se already knew the answer.

"You silly girl! Don't you remember your old pal, Zendor?"

For a long minute, Lovia couldn't respond. Then, after deciding that words just wouldn't do, she ran over and hugged him tightly, her cheeks becoming red with joy. "Zendor! I missed you so much! Where have you been? How did you survive?"

"Take it easy, dear! One question at a time! Hmmm....first, I've been all over the place for quite some time now. Once I'd satisfied my curiosity about this time, I proceeded to find out if you were in this time, as well. Upon seeing that you had awakened from the pod, I went searching from town to town to see if you were being well taken care of. When I came to Dorino and saw you with Laruba and Movious , I knew you would be safe. Ever since then, I've checked up on you periodically, keeping my distance so that I wouldn't alarm you." Zendor paused, scratching his thick, neatly kept white beard, then took a deep breath before continuing. "As to how I survived......to be quite honest, I'm not at all sure. One minute one of Lavo's beams was barreling down on the Star Eye, the next I was here. I assume that all the energy Lavos was producing somehow interfered with time, but I'm afraid you'd have to ask Gaspar or Belthasar about that. After all, they are the smart ones."

"Speaking of the other Gurus....are they here, too? And what about any of the Celestial Wizards? Did any of them survive?"

A sad expression descended upon Zendor's usually happy demeanor as he answered. "If any of them did survive, they were not transported to this time. Perhaps we were all scattered to different times so that we would not be able to unite and come up with a plan to defeat Lavos. I'm sorry I don't know more."

Lovia would have continued to converse with the Guru if JayTee hadn't come up behind her and made himself known. "Hey, buddy! Who the hell are you? You'd better not be messing with my lady, or I'll let good old Frisky get a piece of you."

Zendor simply could not contain his laughter, forcing Lovia to restrain her man. After he calmed down a bit, the Guru replied in an overtly jolly tone. "Oh dear, you've got it all wrong, my boy! Lovia and I are merely long time friends. And as your friend, Lovia, I must say you've made a fine catch. He's a bit lacking in manners, but I think that will fade with time. It feels good to have finally met you, JayTee."

"How the hell do you know my name?" JayTee blurted out.

"Now, now! No need for a temper! I wish I had time to answer your questions, but I'm afraid we have more pressing issues to deal with right now."

As the rest of the group found their way toward the console, Zendor gestured toward the overhead display, which showed the protective field surrounding the storehouse weakening. Giving a quick glance to the field generator power indicators, Zendor estimated that the shield would last for about 5 more minutes, which is exactly how much time they had to prepare for the arrival of Magus.

**********

Admiral Upsilon, watching Magus and his magical friends from the safety of _The Apocalypse_'s bridge, couldn't help but wonder what inside that pyramid could be worth so much trouble. Having spent his life on the island of Grejokila, home of thousands of amphibian-human hybrid species, Upsilon didn't know much about magic and flashy parlor tricks. However, it was his people's marine skills that had attracted a young Magu's attention and compelled him to add a naval branch to his army of mystics. After years of trying to overcome stereotypes, he had slowly climbed up the ranks until, finally, he had attained the rank of Admiral. If there was anything he had learned after all the pain he had suffered, it was to never question Magus...ever. Deciding that Magus would want to make a quick getaway with whatever it was that he was going in there to get, the admiral decided it would be best to get the ship ready for a quick departure and went to his cabin to chart the quickest exit route.

Back on the beach, Magus and his mystics were finally able to disable the shield. Although the attempt left all of his mystics drained, Magus himself was only moderately affected. Using an ancient branching technique, he was able to reenergize the mystics as well as himself back to full strength, making them ready to tackle the task ahead. Without so much as a word, Magus led the mystics into the pyramid, employing yet another technique to interfere with the door's circuitry, allowing them to enter the storehouse without incident. The same technique also disabled each of the booby traps and false passageways, leaving only the path which truly led to the storeroom. As they arrived at the dead end, Magus had the mystics join together in order to perform a unified mental scan of the area, which yielded the both the secret door and the hidden part of the wall which opened it. Finding it odd that Zendor had not tried harder to stop him, Magus hesitated slightly before entering. The Guru of Power's abilities were legendary, and Magus knew that, in a battle of pure magical ability, he would lose. However, with his best mystics by his side, he knew he at least stood a chance, and he would gladly take that chance if it meant getting his hands on the Celestial Book of Magic. Casting aside all other doubts from his mind, Magus opened the door and lead his mystics inside.

**********

Seeing Magus and his mystics entering the storage area, Zendor send a mental signal to Lovia, who was hidden behind a pile of ancient bronze shields. Before Magus could detect her presence, Lovia cast an incantation upon two of the mystics, temporarily muting their magical abilities. As the invading group scattered in all directions, Cyrus leaped from behind some old books and cut off the arm the leg of one of the muted mystics, forcing him to fall to the ground as a pool of yellowish blood build up all around him. Before Cyrus could finish the job, he was knocked aside by a lightning bolt created by another mystic, who soon found himself the object of Zendor's undivided attention. After the mystic tried out a variety of spells with little success, Zendor merely waved his hand and flung the unsuspecting magic user into a power conduit, frying him instantly. Meanwhile, the mystic with the missing arm and leg dragged his bloody body over to where Cyrus had landed, using the remainder of his fleeting magical strength to deliver wave upon wave of dark energy upon his being, preventing him from getting up and helping the others.

Close to where the defense computer was set up, Toma being cornered by yet another mystic, the latter's cosmic blasts forcing him to retreat into a dead end. With no way out, Toma watched in agony as the mystic powered up for his final strike. Luckily, Ogre had been watching the situation nearby and, with a quick charge, unleashed his scimitar upon the dwarfish, hooded mystic. Even though the mystic had managed to raise a last minute physical shield around his body, the surprise of the attack still sent him reeling into some old vases and paintings, forcing him to call off his attack on Toma.

"You ok there, buddy?" Ogre asked with some concern.

"Of course I'm alright, you big softie!" replied Toma, obvious discomfort present on his face as Ogre carried him to the chair in front of the defense computer. "Stay here and rest, ok? We'll take care of these guys."

While Ogre ran back into the fray, Toma curiously stared at the computer keys in front of him, wondering what he could do from this end to help. "Stay put, he says. The hell I will!"

Glenn, hearing what he thought was Cyrus screaming, ran over some ancient junk to see the critically injured mystic tormenting his friend with blasts of dark energy. Not having a useful weapon of his own at hand, Glenn grabbed what appeared to be an axe of some kind and, without any real fear for his own life, swung with all of his might. The swing, although right on target, lacked the sufficient force to produce a decapitation, resulting instead in the mystic's slow death as more yellowish blood sprayed from his now severed jugular vein. Bending down, Glenn checked Cyrus to make sure he was all right.

"I'm fine, kid," Cyrus finally responded. "Now, go help the rest of the guys. I just need a few moments to get my bearings."

"Right. You'd better not go dying on me, Cyrus."

The young squire darted back to the battle, leaving Sir Cyrus to recover on his own. Elsewhere, Lovia had tracked another mystic down with the aid of her mental abilities and caught him trying to make contact with Admiral Upsilon. Realizing he was no match for Lovia's magical abilities, the mystic attempted to reason with her even as she came ever closer, her eyes glowing with a righteous flame as her breasts bounced up and down within her newly acquired velvet silk dress. However, focused as she was on her new prey, she had completely forgotten about the other mystic she had muted, who jumped out from behind a pile of gold spheres and whacked her across the face with a dreamstone rod, flinging her right into a nearby wall. Having lost her focus, the two mystics quickly surrounded her and were prepared to do her in until a mysterious hum to their left caught their attention. Not knowing what to look for, they didn't notice the glowing reddish prism crystal of the laser canon until it was too late, paying for their lack of observation with immediate disintegration. Back at the controls of the defense computer, Toma patted himself on the back for figuring out something about the internal defense systems, hoping that the Lovia he saw on the overhead crystalline display was alright.

Ogre, having replenished his powers after a mighty drink from those strange kegs he had seen earlier, went on the hunt for the mystic he had driven away from Toma, narrowly dodging a ball of fire as he approached a lab bench of some kind. Ducking behind one of his mysterious kegs, he tried to locate the direction of the attack, and soon found it to be coming from the far end of the lab bench. Approaching with great stealth, the warrior with the scruffy black hair and dented royal armor caught sight of his assailant just in time to see him destroy five of the remaining kegs with a flying enchanted glacier. Infuriated at this sudden loss beer, Ogre lunged at the hooded sorcerer with a raging primal fury.

"You bastard! The beer was defenseless! It was no threat to you! Now I'm going to make sure you feel its pain!"

Putting all his might behind his sizeable scimitar, Ogre batted away at the mystic, again unable to damage him because of the shield he had put up, but still capable of flinging him through the air....and into a gaping temporal abyss opened by Zendor, who had heard Ogre's cry and knew that a mystic or two was bound to fly.

"Thanks, ancient Guru! Nice touch with that abyss, by the way."

"Well....it was really the least I could do. Wasting really good beer should be a crime in any time period."

In all of the commotion, Magus had managed to sneak away from his mystics in order to search for the Celestial Book of Magic, not caring one bit what happened to his idiotic followers. Rounding a corner, he came upon a pedestal with a force field around it, and on the pedestal, old and worn but still legible, was the text the ancients themselves had used millennia ago. _Finally! The key to my ultimate victory over Lavos is within my reach!_ As he neared the white pedestal with the elaborate Greek designs on it, a sudden sensation stopped him in his tracks. As he slowly turned around, his elegant cloak rippling briefly in the air, he came to stare into the cold eyes of JayTee, his dreamstone battleaxe out and ready.

"That's as far as you're going to get, Magus."

"Really? And just who is going to stop me from going further? You? Oh please, don't make me laugh! Just because you got in a lucky shot last time does not mean you will be so fortunate this time, for from here only I will escape alive."

"Yeah, right. Your other mystic friends aren't doing so well........what makes you think you'll fare any better?"

"Because unlike them, my stupid little mercenary, I have ancient blood flowing through my veins. And with that book in my possession, the whole world will get to see just what a full-blooded Zealian wizard can do."

"Well, I guess I'll just have to keep you from getting those filthy gloved hands on that book," JayTee ventured in a rather dark tone.

"I guess we both will," came Cyrus's voice as he joined JayTee on the steps leading up to the pedestal, his own iron sword also unsheathed and ready for action.

"Face it, Magus," Zendor said as he hovered directly above Magus's head. "Against forces of good this strong, you can't possibly win. And with me on their side, I think you know you can't. Put away your hate, Janus, and realize that the only way to conquer Lavos is to work as a team."

For a minute, Magus seemed pensive, as if he were genuinely considering the Guru of Power's suggestion. Then, with a dark grin on his face, he tucked away at his scarlet gloves and threw one last glance at the old man hovering above him. "It's that type of thinking that got everyone in Zeal killed, and I wont make the mistake of thinking like that ever again. I will use that book to get my revenge, and not even you, the great Guru of Power, can stop me!"

Before Zendor or any of the others could react, Magus cast a powerful spell over the entire storage area, sucking it into a pocket of chaotic space. As Cyrus, JayTee, and the others looked on in amazement, Magus proceeded to split himself into thousands of mirror images, each one as capable in the black arts as the original. While the blue-haired sorcerer proceeded to taunt his adversaries from all directions, JayTee and Cyrus went on the offensive, striking wildly at one image after another, seeing each one shatter into bits of chaotic space in turn. Even Zendor tried lending a helping hand, but with no positive results. For what seemed like hours, the warriors still capable of fighting hacked, slashed, pierced, and gutted every single Magus they came across, only to have the realistic image disintegrate and another one take its place. After watching the spectacle humorously, Magus decided he had had enough.

"It is time I bring this little game to an end," Magus voiced quietly as he and all of his other mirror selves began to charge up their energy for a final, decisive incantation.

"Zendor! Why can't you stop him? I thought you said he didn't stand a chance against you."

"That is true, Cyrus. However, in this chaotic dimension of his own creation, Magus seems to be in complete control. There really isn't much I can do."

"Well," said JayTee as he twirled his battleaxe round and round, "I'm not going to let some wizard using some cheap trick beat me. Ogre, Cyrus....on my signal, I want you to strike at the image my axe points to. No buts, just do it. Understand?"

"You got it," they both agreed.

With his axe still out, JayTee carefully examined the reflection on the blade to the actual surroundings and, as he'd expected, all of the other Magus's images appeared blurry in the reflection. All, that is, except one. Signaling the other two warriors with the point of his blade, they all charged through the myriad of false images and plunged their blades into the heart of the one and only true image. Opening his eyes with sudden shock and confusion, the great Magus collapsed onto one knee, the chaotic dimension he had plunged them all into shattering bit by bit until all was returned to normal. As red blood flowed from his open wound down onto the steps, he looked back at his enemies and, to the amazement of them all, let out a weak laugh.

"It will.....take more than.....steel blades to...stop...me. I told you.....all....before....that I would be......the only...one....leaving...here....alive. It's....about...time...I made...good...on that...promise."

Gathering up all of his remaining strength, Magus unleashed a powerful dark energy blast at the storage area's power generators, instantly causing them to explode and setting off a sequence of chain of reactions which would undoubtedly destroy the storehouse and, for that matter, the entire island. Realizing how little time they had to escape, Zendor told everyone to gather around him as he attempted to get them all back to the ship using a teleportation technique. Having run off to get the still unconscious Lovia, JayTee was late joining the others, followed shortly thereafter by Toma Levine. Only needing to focus his thoughts on the beach outside the pyramid, Zendor and the people around him quickly vanished as the pillars in the chamber caved in, smashing the defense computer and burying all the great secrets of the storehouse forever.

**********

Magus knew there was nothing else he could do. Weak and beaten, Magus looked back to the stand that had held the ancient magical text, expecting it to have been completely destroyed. However, the book was completely unscathed, the force field gone with the destruction of the power generators. Seeing one fleeting chance for survival, Magus dragged his mortally wounded body painfully up the steps, one by one, until he finally reached the Celestial Book of Magic. As the flames of another explosion reached to consume him, Magus opened the text and chanted in a weak, confidant voice: "Arimantis, letmego, vertusa!" The wall of flames came and went, destroying everything in its path, but Magus was long gone.

**********

Quickly rushing to get aboard _The Alexandria_, the group ran across the miniscule beach and up the gangplank, signaling all the while for Captain Harrison to get a move on. Looking back as the pyramid was destroyed one explosion at a time, Zendor could not hold back the tears of sorrow he felt at that moment. _You got what you wanted, Janus. I hope you realize just what price you'll really be paying, for this decision will haunt you all the days of your life._ His mind still on these somber thoughts, the Guru turned to see a battered Cyrus asking him about the ship Magus had come in. Before he could answer, however, Toma gladly donated a response.

"Don't worry about that. I took care of it. Let's just get out of here, ok?"

**********

On the other side of the island, Admiral Upsilon was desperately giving orders to the goblins and henches of his crew, not wanting to personally stick around for the final fireworks. Unfortunately, his desperation to get away had forced him to miss a giant laser canon emerging from the dying storehouse. With one final blast, the canon created a gigantic hole in _The Apocalypse_'s hull, igniting all of the munitions that had been stored there under the admiral's orders. In a matter of seconds, the entire vessel exploded, heaving a mushroom cloud of ash into the sky as the laser canon itself was destroyed by yet another explosion from within the pyramid.

**********

Making top speed with a little help from Zendor, _The Alexandria_ speed away into the Atlantic just as P'letgo-0 exploded in a brilliant flash, the remains of it sinking deep into the ocean bottom where they would be out of man's reach for a long time.

"Yet another tragedy, another piece of Zeal lost forever," Lovia said as she gazed at where the storehouse used to be.

"That may be, sweetie," JayTee said as he kissed Lovia gently and held her in a loving embrace, "but the future is yet to be written. Maybe all of this is for the better, after all?"

"Yeah....I'll bet it is," Lovia replied happily as the sun descended into its celestial bed once again.

****

Epilogue 

Sir Cyrus, during all of his years in the service of the king, had never seen so much pomp and circumstance in his whole life, and he was guessing Sir Ogre and Squire Glenn hadn't either. When they returned to the palace after the storehouse was destroyed, King Guardia and Queen Leene went insane with joy, bestowing honors and awards upon them until they were the most privileged individuals in the kingdom. Shortly afterward, Chancellor Smith arranged a short ceremony in Truce Square where, in front of thousands of thankful citizens, the three heroes were awarded the Lord Mammon medal, the highest recognition any single individual could receive for bravery in the line of duty. Of course, Ogre and Glenn were far happier with the chicks than the medal, but they thought it would be best not to mention that to the king and queen.

That had been well over a week ago and, as he and Ogre sat at their designated spots around the Square Table, they couldn't help but wonder what was taking the king and the other knights so long to arrive. Finally, after a few more moments, they heard the sound of iron-clad soles and rustling cloaks as the king and the rest of the Knights of The Square Table marched in and sat at their usual positions. Once the usual pleasantries were dispensed with, the king cleared his throat and began the meeting.

"Greetings to you all. It has been so long since all of the knights of this table have been together in the same room. Now, I know Sir Cyrus and Sir Ogre must be tired of this debriefing process, but we are nearly at the end, and this information must be recorded for the benefit of present and future royal dynasties. Is that clear, you two?"

"Yes, sir!" Cyrus and Ogre both replied.

"Good. Now, to begin with, can you tell us if Magus was killed when the pyramid and the island were destroyed? We haven't heard anything new from the mystic camp, and all battlefield activity has slowed to a barely perceptible crawl. Even the occasional raids have ceased. If Magus had died, it would all make sense."

"Well, your majesty," Cyrus answered, "we really didn't have time to confirm anything as we were fleeing the island, and any concrete proof that he is deceased now lies at the bottom of the Atlantic. However, it would be reasonable to conclude that no mortal, even one with powers like his, could survive the combination of being skewered through the heart and being blown up along with an entire island."

"I see. Well, if that is the case, that will be what goes in our official report. Thank you, Cyrus. Now, do any of you have any other inquiries you would like to make at this time?"

"I do, your majesty," Sir Fireblade said, stroking his blonde mustache as he pondered his question. "Were you able to find any information on the Masamune or its whereabouts?"

"No, I'm afraid not," responded Ogre, a rather disappointed look on his face. "We would have had more time to look around if Magus hadn't shown up to ruin things."

"On the other hand," Cyrus added, "Toma did gather quite a bit of information while we were in there in the form texts, books, scrolls, and sketches of some of the hieroglyphs. With Lovia's vast knowledge of Zeal's history, we might be able to find some useful information yet. We just have to give it more time."

"What of Magus's ship? In your report, you stated that Toma had spotted a large vessel of some unknown type belonging to him and that he was able to destroy it using some of the storehouse's technology. Would you perhaps know if he has any more ships of this type? If they do...and they suddenly decided to use them in a naval campaign, we'd be totally helpless."

"That's true," Cyrus affirmed. "Hmmm......I'm afraid we can't tell you much about that either, Fireblade. The fact that Magus has a naval force of any size is a surprise to all of us. However, it may be comforting to know that, if the mystics did have a viable naval fleet, they would surely have used it already. My bet is that they only have a few ships that are seaworthy right now, probably locked away in some experimental shipyard or something. If we learn of the location of this shipyard, we might be able to wipe out this amphibious threat."

Sir Fireblade nodded, signaling that his inquiries were at an end. It took a moment, but Sir Doan also had some things he wanted cleared up, so he took the opportunity and became the next to speak.

"I also noticed mention of another adversary in your report, one who pursued _The Alexandria_ and nearly sank it. Could you possibly fill us in on what type of ship he was using? Was it one of Magus's?"

"Not from the looks of it," Ogre said as he took another swig of his ale. "That ship had weapons and technology I haven't see anywhere else, certainly far beyond the abilities of goblins and henches. As to who was navigating it......we never really got a good look at him. Whoever he was, he wanted us gone bad, and he would have pulled it off if Lovia hadn't stepped in and saved our asses. I just hope we never have to tangle with anyone like that again."

"I agree with you wholeheartedly on that one, good buddy," Cyrus chimed inn, smiling briefly before becoming serious again. "Now, I have a few questions for you, Knight Captain Morigan. What exactly has been done about that training camp JayTee and Toma found? Have we taken any action? What forces will be involved in its destruction?"

"We're way ahead of you, buddy. As soon as we read that part of the report, we sent one of our special infiltration units to the location. They returned just over an hour ago....the entire place has been destroyed, including the subterranean tunnel system. As for those henches.....let's just say we wont be seeing them ever again. Our boys made sure of that."

"Thanks for the info. I'm sure glad the king decided to grant JayTee a full pardon. Otherwise, he might not have been as willing to divulge his information to us. Once a knight, always a knight, I say. Well......is that it?"

Looking around the table, Cyrus could see that it was. After a few more announcements by the king, the meeting was adjourned and each knight went their seperate ways, wanting to enjoy the present atmosphere of peace before it evaporated like the morning mist.

**********

"Man, this stuff is amazing!" Toma exclaimed as he finished his analysis of the remains of a crystal powered blaster, one of the many items he had examined that day. After returning from P'letgo-0, Toma had been hard at work trying to make sense of all the stuff he had recovered from that technological gold mine, evaluating his finds for both street and intellectual value. Lovia had helped him to learn the ancient language so that he could translate the written works on his own, but even she could not resist analyzing some of the texts, especially those containing incantations, spells, and interesting historical tidbits. When she left with JayTee to return to her home town, Toma opted to remain in Choras to continue his research, knowing that the knowledge contained in these records could someday save the world in its hour of need.

Putting aside the laser device, Toma the Explorer went back to a manuscript he had begun to translate earlier that day. So far, the text had been rather boring, the author choosing to go on about fashion styles and ancient pottery making techniques rather than Zealian philosophy or technology. Having finished another page, he was about to give it up for the day when he noticed that something had been hidden between chapters of the manuscript. Gently pulling it out into the open, he realized that what he had pulled out was two maps bound together and a note written in a strange Zealian script. The note was not very long, only a few words, but what they said shook him right down to his toes: _Whoever holds these maps knows the way. Let the darkness succumb to the light, for hero and Masamune at last unite!_ Gathering his things, Toma left his homely little cottage and headed for the nearest shipyard, knowing he had to give this information to Cyrus and the king as soon as possible.

**********

Dorino was still recovering from damage it had suffered after the raid, but thanks to the help pledged by the king, the townspeople had managed to rebuild 80 percent of the destroyed homes and other properties. It had been hard for JayTee to tell Lovia that her parents had died in the raid, but he really couldn't keep it from her any longer. As he had expected, she was devistated, but with him by her side, she eventually recovered. Zendor had vanished after making sure that she was alright, but before he left he had shared tons of stories about Zeal and its inhabitants with all the patrons of the newly rebuilt tavern, dedicated to the memory of Movious and his wife. These elaborate tales instantly revived Dorino's economy, bringing in travelers and traders from locations near and far. On the night before he left, Zendor and Lovia had been admiring the stars as they shone down upon all of mankind when Zendor asked her how she felt about JayTee.

"Well.....he's unlike any other man I have met before. He's kind, determined, and his total lack of manners actually turns me on. All the men is Zeal were boring, arrogant, conceited, and totally unaware of their own mortality, but this one is different somehow."

"Do you think you could marry this man someday?" Zendor asked in a curious tone.

"Yes. I could spend my whole life with him."

"That's good to know, because you'll need someone to watch out for you when the time comes."

"What do you mean?"

Zendor let out a string of chuckles. "You didn't think that the temporal assassins would give up that easily, did you? One day, they'll be back to finish the job, and having a resourceful man like JayTee around will definitely be a plus. Well....my ancient bones are aching. Good night, Lovia."

As Zendor went inside to rest his weary body, Lovia looked back up at the sky, wondering if there was anyone out there among the eternal stars as happy as she was.

**********

Toma spent a lot of gil to get to Guardia Castle in the shortest time possible, but it was well worth it. He realized that it might not be a good idea to intrude on the king and the knights at this time, the information he brought with him simply could not wait. After a few minutes, the guards led Toma to the briefing room, where King Guardia and Sir Cyrus were waiting rather impatiently.

"This better be good, Toma," the king said, rather annoyed at being disturbed. "I know you have a certain honorable status because of what you did for the kingdom, but that doesn't give you the right to just come barging in here whenever you like."

"I understand that, your majesty. However, what I have to share with you simply could not wait."

"Well, then, get on with it," Cyrus suggested. "I have some training exercises to participate in."

"Very well. To be brief, I have discovered the location of the Masamune."

"What's that, you say?"

"I kid you not. Here....see for yourselves."

Looking on with amazement, the knight and the king watched as Toma unrolled the manuscript containing the two joined maps and the note, briefly discussing some of his preliminary findings. When he was finished, there was a brief silence as both listeners digested the information.

"So....the Masamune's in the Denadoro Mountains?" Cyrus inferred.

"Right! Unfortunately, the area of the mountain the map points to was buried under an avalanche a long time ago, probably before the creation of the top map. As for the bottom map....nobody has ever ventured into those woods and come back alive, cursed as they are. Yet, according to the records, that is where the Frog King stole the Hero Medal from Lord Mammon. Whoever does go in there would have to be one brave person...one brave person indeed. Nevertheless, it would be pointless to get the medal now, since we can't clear the avalanched region with all of Ozzie's goons hanging around up there."

The discussion continued on for several more hours, the three individuals trying desperately to come up with a plan to retrieve what may very well be the kingdom's last hope.

**********

Heavy rain from a powerful thunderstorm pelted Ozzie's padded, circular green head, his white Grand Mystic's outfit getting completely drenched before he was able to get into the castle. He wouldn't have had to come out here at all if Magus hadn't gone and done things behind his back like he had. _Who does that young upstart think he is? Hording my troops so he could build this elaborate castle for himself.....and then taking a demon class barge to some god-forsaken island only to blow it up, taking our only admiral along with it! But the thing that really infuriates me is that I never would have learned of this treachery if one of my spies hadn't informed me of it. Me, the king of all mystics, having to resort to spies to get the information I need. Well, all that is going to end right now! I'm going to set things straight once and for all._

Waiting for Ozzie on the other side of the entryway was Magus, his cold eyes complementing the chest scar hidden under his newly constructed blue Grand Mystic's robes. Ever since his near death at the storehouse, all Magus could think about was staying alive. Having teleported himself to his private shrine just before the final explosion, a barely conscious Magus had mentally summoned the mystics to his aid, his heart rate slowing with each passing breath. The mystics had been able to save him, but not before he had a vision of Lavos sucking the flesh from his lifeless body and laughing mockingly at his failure. The minute he was well enough to practice magic again, he sealed himself in the shrine and began to delve into the Celestial Book of Magic, learning every last one of its secrets. However, there was one little thorn still poking at his side and ruining his concentration, a thorn he was about to remove right now.

"Welcome, Lord Ozzie. So good to see you again."

"Don't you say that to me, you traitor! And what the hell are you doing wearing Grand Mystic's robes? You are my servant, not my master! I demand to know what the hell is going on here."

"Well, if you'll just follow me," Magus replied in a pseudo reverent tone, "I'm sure all will become quite clear."

Leading Ozzie up several flights of stairs to the war room, Magus gestured for Ozzie to enter, which he did in his usual pompous manner. And he couldn't have been any more unprepared for what greeted him as two guards with sharp battleaxes tied him up and forced him to sit at the table, the representatives of the Mystic Alliance staring at him irreverently. Before he could say anything, Magus spoke up from behind him.

"As you can clearly see, Ozzie, I am in charge of things now. I have more important things to do, so I shall be brief. Either you join me....or you die. The decision is yours. Out of kindness, I will give you the highest rank among all my generals, but that's about it. Take it or leave it, I really don't care. Well? What's it going to be, fatty?"

There was little Ozzie could do but accept, which he did through mental means. "Excellent! Now, before I let you go, I want you to know that I have the Celestial Book of Magic now......if you ever try to double cross me in any way, I'll make sure you pay for it every day for all eternity. Am I making myself clear? Good. I'm glad we've come to an understanding."

In one swift motion, Magus unsheathed his newly acquired Zealian scythe and reluctantly cut the bloated green pig free of his restraints. In a mere matter of moments, Magus had returned to his studies while Ozzie found himself face first in the mud, the rain from the storm actually increasing as he teleported himself back to Y'yabbar.

**********

He had not been here in a long time, yet he was still shocked at the kind of scum that had found their way here over the years, outlaws and the like using the heights of the mountains to hide away from the law or to spy on enemies. It was a simple enough task to get past them and to clear the entry to the sanctuary from all those rocks, making it accessible for the first time in ages. Stepping into the dark cavern, Zendor made his way to the only light in the environs, a small beam of moonlight reflecting off of a metallic object positioned at the end of the cave. Approaching it carefully, the ancient Guru picked it up and looked around, expecting to see some familiar faces.

"Come on out, Masa and Mune! I know you are here!"

"Playing with you is never any fun, Zendor," came the echoing reply, followed by the appearance of two small, green creatures on a large boulder to Zendor's right. Both creatures wore similar white robes, with variations occurring only at the neck so that they could be distinguished.

"So.....why have you awakened us, Zendor? Have you found us an owner?"

"I believe I have.....although he may not arrive here for some time yet."

"I see.....well then, will you at least play with us?" asked Masa with an innocent pout on his face. "We get really lonely being up here all by ourselves. Please?"

"Yeah, Zendor!" agreed Masa's partner, Mune. "You need to stop being so serious, live a little! After all, you humans only live once, right?"

Zendor nodded his head, remembering the screams of the Enlightened Ones as their utopia was destroyed right out from under them. Looking at the Masamune once more, he sighed once and smiled. "Alright, you talked me into it. But just remember that you asked for it!"

As he went chasing the two twin-like beings around the small cavern, the Masamune suddenly began to glow, as if hoping that its destined wielder would see the glow stand out among the stars and come to claim it, using it to drive back the evil from the world. But that would have to wait until after the falling of the winter snows.....until the return of Persephone to the Earth upon the wings of the phoenix.......

**__**

To be continued...

****

Additional Info

Name of Author: Ernesto Perez (a.k.a. Mystic Guru)

Date of Birth: 3/30/82

Date of Death: N/A (???)

Date of Final Edit: 5/25/01

Final Comments: This Project was loads of fun to do. Until next time, keep a dream in your heart and a beer in your hand! (^_^) 


End file.
